How to Resize Images in Bulk on Windows
Windows resizes one picture at a time in Photos or Paint, and Microsoft's free PowerToys add-on brings Image Resizer, which resizes a whole selection from File Explorer's right-click menu. File Acture's Resize Images scales a batch to a longest edge such as 2048 px or to a percentage, saves new files and never enlarges an image.
Updated September 24, 20265 min read
By the File Acture team
Blog images that should be 1600 px wide, product photos for a shop, a folder of 48-megapixel shots for a shared album: resizing one image on Windows is easy. Resizing two hundred is where the built-in tools run out.
When should you resize images instead of compressing them?
Resize when an image has more pixels than the place it's going can show. A 4K display is 3840 pixels wide, a blog column far less, and a photo straight from a phone often has more pixels than either.
Resizing removes pixels, which shrinks the file and speeds up uploads and pages. Compression keeps the pixels and stores them more efficiently. For photos going to the web or into an email, doing both gives the smallest files.
How to resize images with Photos, Paint or PowerToys
Windows' own apps resize the picture you have open. For a whole selection, Microsoft offers PowerToys, a free add-on you install separately.
Photos and Paint: one image at a time
In Photos, open the picture, click See more (…) and choose Resize image. Set a Percentage or a size in Pixels, adjust Quality if you like and click Save resized copy; the original stays as it was.
Paint's Resize and skew works by percentage or pixels and can keep the aspect ratio. Use File > Save as afterwards, because Save replaces the original.
PowerToys Image Resizer: a selection in File Explorer
Select the images, right-click, choose Resize with Image Resizer, pick a size and click Resize. By default it writes copies with the size in their names, such as photo (Small).jpg.
The presets are boxes, Small (854 × 480), Medium (1366 × 768), Large (1920 × 1080) and Phone (320 × 568), and each image is fitted inside the one you pick, so a 4:3 landscape photo resized to Large comes out 1440 × 1080. Check two settings: Make pictures smaller but not larger is off by default, so small images are enlarged to fit the box, and JPEGs are saved at the JPEG quality level in PowerToys Settings, 90 by default.
How to resize images in bulk with File Acture
File Acture's Resize Images scales every image in a batch by its longest edge or by a percentage and saves the results as new files.
Set Resize by to Longest edge and type a pixel value, or pick 1024, 1600, 2048 or 3840 px from Presets. Choose Percentage instead to scale everything by the same share, from 5% to 95%. Proportions are always kept, and images already smaller than your setting are never enlarged.
Quality sets the compression of lossy formats such as JPEG and WebP, and Keep metadata decides whether camera details and location stay; it's off by default. Each image keeps its format, so a JPEG stays JPEG and a PNG stays PNG, while GIF, TIFF and BMP files are saved as PNG or JPEG. New files get “-resized” in their names, photos stay upright, and the originals are left as they were.
Which size should you resize photos to?
Pick the smallest size that still looks sharp where the image will be shown. For a website, that's about twice the width the image fills on the page, so it stays sharp on high-resolution screens: a photo shown 800 pixels wide in a blog column looks best at around 1600 px. Going further only adds weight.
- 1024 px: thumbnails, chat apps and previews.
- 1600 px: blog posts, newsletters and email.
- 2048 px: large images on websites and shared albums.
- 3840 px: full-screen viewing on a 4K display.
- 50%: halves both edges and leaves a quarter of the pixels, handy when the batch mixes sizes.
Should you resize, compress or convert your images?
Resizing sets the pixel size, compressing sets the file size, and converting sets the format, so pick the tool that matches the limit you're facing.
If a form says “under 500 KB”, compress the images to a target size and File Acture reduces the pixel size only if it has to. If a site wants JPG and your photos came from an iPhone, convert HEIC to JPG as well. When all you know is the width a page displays, resizing is the right first step.
Does resizing remove location data from photos?
In File Acture it does, unless you turn on Keep metadata, so resized photos don't carry the GPS position they were taken at. In PowerToys Image Resizer, Remove metadata that doesn't affect rendering is an option you turn on yourself. To clean photos without resizing them, use Remove Metadata.
The resizing happens on your PC, so the photos are never uploaded. The free version resizes up to 5 images per run, with 3 runs on each PC; see pricing for Pro.
When a form asks for pixels and kilobytes at the same time, see how to prepare an application photo.
How to resize images in bulk with File Acture
- 1
Add your images
Choose Resize Images and drag in your images, or click Choose Files….
- 2
Choose how to resize
Under Size, set Resize by to Longest edge or Percentage.
- 3
Set the size
Type the pixel value or pick one from Presets, or set the percentage.
- 4
Set quality and metadata
Adjust Quality and decide whether to Keep metadata.
- 5
Resize
Click Resize. New files get “-resized” in their names.
Resize a whole folder of photos in one run, right on your PC.
Free to try · runs on your PC
| Method | Size options | Keeps the originals | Quality setting |
|---|---|---|---|
| Photos, See more > Resize image | Percentage or pixels, one image | Yes, saves a copy | Yes, a slider |
| Paint, Resize and skew | Percentage or pixels, one image | Only with Save as | No |
| PowerToys Image Resizer | Presets or custom sizes in pixels, percent, cm or inches | Yes, unless Overwrite files is on | JPEG only, in PowerToys Settings |
| File Acture Resize Images | Longest edge, percentage or presets | Yes | Yes, a slider |
Questions
How do I resize multiple images at once on Windows?
Install Microsoft's free PowerToys and choose Resize with Image Resizer from File Explorer's right-click menu, or add the images to File Acture's Resize Images and click Resize.
How do I resize images without overwriting the originals?
Photos saves a resized copy, PowerToys Image Resizer writes copies unless Overwrite files is on, and in Paint you use Save as. File Acture always writes new files and leaves the originals alone.
What does longest edge mean?
It's the longer side of each image. At 2048 px, a landscape photo becomes 2048 px wide and a portrait photo 2048 px tall, with proportions kept.
Will resizing make small images bigger?
Not in File Acture: images already smaller than your setting keep their size. In PowerToys Image Resizer, turn on Make pictures smaller but not larger for the same result.
Does resizing reduce file size?
Yes, usually by a lot: halving both edges leaves a quarter of the pixels.