MP3Info Shell Extension

MP3Info Shell Extension is a simple DLL that gets integrated into the Windows Explorer shell extension to provide additional information about MP3 audio tracks, such as total frames, bit rate, and frequency.
It can be used not only by users experienced with audio processing software, but also by casual users looking to sort out their music collection based on these details.

How to install and uninstall

The downloaded package includes a feather-light DLL file along with an INF file. In order to install this tool, open the right-click menu of the INF to select the "Install" entry. No further user intervention is necessary, as the operation is carried out almost instantly. It can be similarly uninstalled, or from the "Add/Remove Programs" applet in Control Panel.

View audio properties and edit tags

From this point on, you can hover the mouse cursor over any MP3 track in Windows Explorer to view a tooltip message with the ID3 tags (name, artist, album, comment, year, genre, track) as well as file size (kilobytes), length (minutes), total frames, bit rate (kbit/s), sample rate (Hz), channel mode (mono or stereo) and MP3 version (e.g. MPEG1 Layer III).
This information provided by MP3Info Shell Extension can also be viewed while the ID3 tags can be edited by accessing the "Properties" dialog of the MP3 file and going to the second pane. The ID3 fields can be cleared or reset with the click of a button.

Evaluation and conclusion

Although it hasn't received updates for a long time, the utility worked smoothly on newer Windows models in our tests, without any compatibility issues. It remained stable throughout our tests, without causing Windows Explorer to hang, crash or prompt error messages.
All in all, MP3Info Shell Extension offers a simple and effective solution for learning more information about MP3 audio tracks.