Managing the Videos Library

We now move from still pictures to moving pictures, in the form of digital videos. In Windows 7, digital video files are consolidated in the Videos library, and physically stored in the My Videos and Public Videos folders.

Video files are displayed as "filmstrip" icons, with thumbnails from each video as part of the icon. Click a file to view information about that file at the bottom of the Explorer window.

Playing Videos

There aren't a whole lot of unique options in the Videos library. You can play any individual video by double-clicking the file icon, of course. You can also play all the videos in the library (or in any folder or subfolder) by clicking the Play All button in the Explorer toolbar.

Managing Video Properties

Windows 7 lets you sort your videos by various file details, such as name, date taken, tags, size, rating, and length. You can also sort by additional details, including frame rate, genre, director, and the like. Some camcorders add this metadata directly to the video files, or you can manually enter attributes by following these steps:

1. From within Windows Explorer, navigate to and right-click the file you want to edit.
2. Select Properties from the pop-up menu.
3. When the Properties dialog box appears, select the Details tab.
4. Select a given property and enter a value.
5. Click OK.

As with photo properties, there are a lot of video properties available. Table below details the options.

Available Video Properties