I did try a little experiment with the shortcut I had set up for an image folder, and added a filename. Sure enough the folder was opened plus the details of the specified image. So, encouraged by this, I turned to Faststone Image Viewer (more Freeware that I use a lot), went into "Settings" and specified ExifToolGUI as an "external program" with "filename" as a parameter (this also includes the path). It worked like a dream! I can now be browsing images in FIV and with one key (actually a double key - Alt + a number) I get access to the complete metadata, which I can also update. This also works with RAW files, although as a Sony user I cannot update them - ho-hum. This is just great! Thank you Bogdan, and Phil of course, for enormously helping my workflow.
Regards, Arthur.