Software How To

Wouldn’t it be great if you could resize a batch of images simply by right-clicking them and selecting their new dimensions from a menu? Windows users now can—even on 64-bit machines running Windows 8.1.

One of the nicer features of gone-but-not-forgotten Windows XP was the set of PowerToys which performed interesting and useful tasks. My favorite PowerToy was Image Resizer. One quick right-click on an image (or batch of images) and you could resize it to something easier to send by e-mail. You’d never use it for finish work, but if you needed to make a large set of images smaller so a client or model could review them, the little program was superb.

Alas, it went the way of XP to an unceremonious demise.

Fortunately for all of us, someone else felt the same way. Brice Lambson recreated the body and spirit in a free program called, of all things, Image Resizer. It’s not brand new; it’s been around long enough for all of the bugs to be exorcised. It works great on my Windows 8.1 machine and I’ve seen reports that it runs fine under Windows 7, Vista and even good old XP. There’s a harmless—and free—way to find out. You can download Image Resizer here.

Although Brice is a software engineer employed by Microsoft, Image Resizer was written entirely in his spare time as a moonlighting project, which means Microsoft does not endorse this software.You can read all about the early stages of the product’s development on Brice’s blog, found here.

Clicking on the Advanced Settings option opens a window that promises future enhancements, including, perhaps, custom file names and the option to reduce file sizes. When asked how soon we can expect to see these improvements, Brice answered quite candidly. “Seeing how it's been two years, I make no promises. I hope, however, to get another release out around April. I made a good push around Christmas, but didn't quite get to a point I could release.”

Readers, if you leave your comments and encouragement here or on our Facebook page, maybe we can persuade Brice to surprise us with a new version in the spring.

—Jon Sienkiewicz