>Naomi --
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>My question doesn't have to do with optimization -- it has to do with the field "picture taken on", which is not returned by ADIR. (This field may be made visible in Explorer, but the problem is that I want the icons to be sorted by this field -- and the option is not available).
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I meant there is another way to get directory content using Scripting.FileSystemObject. Anyway, looks like it would not help you if it's some extra property of the file. I think there was a thread here with a solution by Alexander Golovlev, but it was about Word document extra properties. There was also a thread by Michel Fournier about image properties. It's late now, so I'm not sure I can find either of these threads now...

Or may be it would it File has FileCreated date in addition to modified. Can you verify that?