This is an experiment to see if EXIF information will be saved if you open your image editor through your image viewer. I use Ulead's Photo Explorer 8 as my viewer. I already have found that if you are using Ulead's PhotoImpact the information will be saved, so here I am using Photoshop Elements 2.0.
This image represents the edited image, the EXIF information is saved, the final file size is 150kb jpeg