A boring post, I'm afraid, but I am in a fix and this is a plea for advice.

I need to find suitable software to catalogue hundreds (possibly thousands) of JPG image files from digital cameras in many different folders on a PC's hard disc. I wondered whether anyone on the forum could suggest a software package that can do the following:

I am looking for easy to use ('easy' being the operative word)  software that will enable me to enter a short description and/or keywords plus a date for each photo on the hard disc, and which then enables me to search for specific keywords or dates so that I can quickly find and display only the photos matching the search criteria.

All the JPG files have the default names assigned by the various digital cameras (you know the sort of thing: PIC00001.JPG, P5060009.JPG, etc.) As there are hundreds of these photos I don't want to have to do any file renaming.

I currently use the thumbnail facility in the excellent freeware program IrfanView to 'manually' search for specific images, but there are now so many folders and photos that looking through thumbnails to find something has become impractical.

If anyone can suggest the name(s) of simple software (preferably low cost or freeware) that can enable me to search for specific photos by keyword and date as explained above, I would be very grateful. Thanks!