When importing photos from the camera using Windows Photos Gallery, it is used to add a date time stamp along with the picture name on the camera storage device. The format used to be YYYYMMDDHHMMSS or just YYYY-MM-DD and then sequential numbers after that. However, when Windows updated, this was removed as a default action since Windows Photos Gallery was no longer supported in Windows 10. Many need this option as it makes it easy to organize or find files in chronological order. In this guide, we will share how to add date time stamp to name the pictures when importing pictures in Windows 11 or Windows 10.
Add Date Time stamp to Photos in Windows 11/10
Good news is that the import window is still available in Windows, and you can keep using Windows Photos Gallery, and get the same feature.
- Right click on the desktop, and select New and then Shortcut.
- Then the shortcut asks for location, copy paste the next line there-
%SystemRoot%\system32\rundll32.exe "%SystemDrive%\Program Files\Windows Photo Viewer\photoAcq.dll",PhotoAndVideoAcquire
- Click on the Next button. Add an appropriate name for your shortcut, Import Pictures with Date Time, and save it. If you use it very often, you can also pin this to your start menu or task for quick access.
- Connect your camera, and then double-click to launch the importer. It will autodetect your cameras, and ask you to select it. Select and import.
- Before the actual import, you can preconfigure feature things.
- Add tags to all the photos.
- Click on Advanced Options, and you can configure save location for images, save location for videos, folder name can have Date and name added, the File name can include date time, and name appended together.
- Additionally, you have the option to delete files from the camera, open file explorer after the import is complete, and rotate pictures on import
Before importing images, and videos, you get to see a preview of both. You can choose to skip a few imports by unchecking the box next to it. The software also offers you to see photos in groups which in simple words grouped by date. Lastly, you can choose to import only new ones to skip duplicate file import.
While Windows Photos App offers a modern interface, and probably a better way to view images, it is rather slow, and without any option for import. We would love to see if small, yet important, options like these are added to it so importing can be fruitful.
