ZuneTag ("Zune Meta Tag Editor" by The Drunken Bakery) is a Windows desktop tool for editing the metadata tags on .wmv files so they show up correctly as Movies, TV Shows, Music Videos, or generic Videos when synced to a Zune.
The Zune classifies video content using a pair of GUID-valued attributes baked into the WMV file (WM/MediaClassPrimaryID / WM/MediaClassSecondaryID). Most tools that produce or re-encode WMV files don't set these correctly, so files land in the wrong category (or none at all) on the device. ZuneTag lets you inspect and fix a file's raw attributes directly, and fills in the surrounding metadata (title, description, genre, year, cast/director, cover art, etc.) to match.
- Reads and writes WMV metadata attributes directly via the Windows Media Format SDK, including the Zune-specific media-classification GUIDs.
- Dedicated panels for Movie, TV Show, Music Video, and generic Video metadata, matching what the Zune expects for each type.
- Built-in search against The Movie Database (TMDB) to pull in title, genre, director, description, and cover art, then copy it straight into the tag fields.
- Generates a thumbnail preview from the video file itself so you can confirm you're tagging the right one.
- Logs diagnostic output to
%TEMP%\ZuneTag.logfor troubleshooting.
- .NET Framework 4.8, Windows Forms (single-window desktop app).
- Windows Media Format SDK (
WMVCore.dll) via a small COM-interop wrapper project, for all attribute reading/writing. - TMDbLib for TMDB search and metadata.
- Xabe.FFmpeg for thumbnail generation (FFmpeg itself is downloaded automatically on first run).
- Fody / Costura.Fody to bundle all managed dependencies into a single
ZuneTag.exefor release builds. - xUnit for the test suite covering the app's pure-logic classes.
- Built and published via GitHub Actions on
windows-latest; packaged for install via an NSIS installer script.
Grab the latest ZuneTag.exe from the Releases page — it's a single portable executable with all managed dependencies bundled in, so there's nothing else to install alongside it.
Prerequisites:
- Windows (7 SP1 or later).
- .NET Framework 4.8 runtime installed. Most current Windows installs already have this; if
ZuneTag.exewon't launch, this is the first thing to check. - The Windows Media Format SDK's
WMVCore.dll, registered and present on the system. This ships with Windows Media Player and is present on most consumer Windows installs by default; it may be missing on server SKUs or "N"/"KN" editions of Windows that omit media features, in which case installing the relevant Windows Media Feature Pack resolves it. - An internet connection on first run — the app downloads an FFmpeg binary automatically (for thumbnail generation) and needs connectivity for TMDB search. No API key setup is required; a TMDB key is already bundled in the app.
No installation is required for the standalone EXE — just run it. An NSIS-based installer (Installer/ZuneTag.nsi) is also available if you'd prefer a proper Start Menu install; see CLAUDE.md for how to build it.
See CLAUDE.md for build instructions, project layout, and architecture notes.
ZuneTag is freeware — see License.txt for the full terms (personal and internal corporate use is fine; it can't be bundled with or sold as part of a commercial product).