> > Typically, I can recompress a 2Mb picture to 800Kb using Irfanview
> > What would be the best equivalent command line utility to Irfanview
>
> if you're happy with IrfanView why not use its command line options?
>
> see i_options.txt for all its cmd line parms; I guess option /jpgq
> should do what you want ...
>
> Example for /jpgq:
> i_view32.exe c:\test.jpg /jpgq=75 /convert=c:\new.jpg
> => Open 'c:\test.jpg' and save it as c:\new.jpg, quality = 75
> Quality range: 1 - 100.
>
> best regards, andreas


I am profoundly sorry for my impolite behaviour.
I asked a question, received answers, and failed to do a proper follow-up of the thread and give appropriate thanks.
Apologies to all.
Time just flew, I can't understand where it went!

Thank you very much Andreas for your answer that totally fits my needs.
Last time I tested console commands with Irfanview, I did not succeed in keeping original file info and stamp. I dunno what went wrong and just thought it didn't work.
Now it does! Yes!
This is exactly what I needed.
Thank you.


So my new best F9 friend is the following:

START "" "C:\Program Files (x86)\IrfanView\i_view32.exe" "%1" /jpgq=80 /convert "%1"

Note that I reduce in size only pictures that have little artistic value. I tend to use a lot my phone as a quick memo reminder for a lot of things: bills, things to do, serial numbers of items, Wifi key on routers, etc. I don't want them to take too much space. Because many of these memos have small characters in them, I don't want to compress too much. My phone take pictures at 95% compression. Reducing to 80% cut the size in half. This is more than enough.