Resizing your photos in a batch

A friend just received a new Canon A590 IS camera. This is a nice camera with all the basic necessary functionalities of a camera to take great pictures! There is a nice review of it at the Digital Camera Resource Page.

Anyways, my friend asked me about the size of the pictures she e-mails to her daughter. They have always been awfully big. Was there something that can be done? Could there be a setting in the camera to resize the photos?

My recommendation of course was to keep the image quality to "Superfine" to capture as many details as possible and use Windows to make resized copies of the pictures.

Now, I have been using IrfanView to do quick image manipulations and resizing before posting them on websites or e-mailing them out. I was typing away some instructions when I realized that IrfanView was not the right tool. It would frustrate a non-computer user. There has to be a better (turn-key) solution. Doesn't Microsoft have some tools that can integrate into Windows Explorer?

Yes, they do. It's called the Microsoft's Image Resizer Powertoy for Windows XP. After installation, Windows Explorer will sport the option to resize an image. The software has only a few simple options -- choose the size to resize to and away it goes. A batch of picture files can be resized at once so this was the solution I gave my friend. She will be happy with this Powertoy! I know I am.