How to change quality level in Windows.
Open your picture in Microsoft Photo Editor:
Use Explorer, and go to the file that contains the picture you want to shrink the file size of. Place your curser on the thumbnail, or file name of the wanted picture, and right click. Move your curser down to 'Open with'. This should cause a second window to open. Move your curser over to the second window, then down to, and click on, Microsoft Photo Editor. If you do not find this in the list in this new window, move your curser to the bottom of the window and click on 'Chose Program'. You will then be given a larger choice and then click twice on 'Microsoft Photo Editor'.
Once your picture has opened up in Microsoft Picture editor:
1) Do not crop it unless that is what you really want to do.
2) Do not resize it, unless it was a little fuzzy, and you don't want anyone to know. This is great for me as I sometimes miss focus on my flowers.
3)Now, without having done anything at all in the editor, unless you really wanted to do one of the above, go to and click on 'File', on the far left of the top menu bar. When the drop down menu opens, go down to and click on 'Save As'. When the new window opens up, you will want you to do two things, the second being the most important.
a) Click on 'More>>' at the very bottom of the window. When the next window opens, move the slider at the very bottom of the window until the number just above it reads about 75. Now, when you finally (but not now) click on 'Save', your photo will take up only about 10% of the space it did before. However, **DON'T** click on 'Save' yet, not until you have done the following.
b) I very highly recommend that you attach a code to you new picture that indicates what you have done to the picture. By making a change in the 'File Name' mini-window, at about the center of the currently open window, a new file will be created, leaving the old file untouched. I use 'F75', 'F75c', or 'H75', meaning F=full size, 'c'=crop, 'H'=half size (when resizing), and '75' for the quality level, although I have a different numbering system based on the Photoshop quality levels. Examples:
Arpophyllum giganteum F7 IMG03533.jpg
or
IMG03533 F12.jpg
F12, for me, means maximum quality; F7 is my standard quality for sending pics thru mail or Internet. I am sure you will want to come up with your own system, but above all, you have to make **SOME** kind of a name change, or you will **WIPE OUT** your original picture.
Cynthia