In gathering metadata for a file on Windows, which method is commonly used?

• A. Windows file properties
• B. exiftool <filename>
• C. grep
• D. ls -lisap <file>

Answer: (A)

Viewing and gathering metadata on Windows is typically done through the file’s Properties dialog. This built-in feature shows the Details tab with metadata like file size, dates, attributes, and often author or title information, and it works across file types without needing extra tools. Exiftool is a powerful separate utility for reading and writing embedded metadata (especially for images and some documents), and it’s commonly used in more advanced workflows, but not the default method for everyday Windows users. The other options are Unix/Linux commands not native to Windows and aren’t how metadata is generally retrieved in the Windows environment.