I've been searching various forums trying to see if it is possible to get the thumbnail view on the desktop. I hope its not obvious, but I do hope it's doable. TIA
XP: Desktop thumbnails?
- Thread starter rotarychainsaw
- Start date
- Mar 4, 2000
- 27,370
- 240
- 106
Generally, what is on the desktop are program icons and folders. What does a thumbnail view of those look like? Exactly what is it that you want a thumbnail of? Thumbnails are miniature representations of graphics, i.e., jpg, gif, bmp, etc. BAsically, thumbnails must be icon files, and thumbnails are not icon files. They are miniature graphics. To do what you seem to want, you have to create an .ICO file using a graphic image.
well, in gnome for instance, if you have a jpg on the desktop its displayed as a thumbnail. I think its a nice touch. I figure since the destop is really just a folder there has to be a way to switch it to thumbnail like in all other explorer windows.
I cant say I've ever seen the thumbnail view used on the desktop. Generally there wouldnt be much advantage to it (like corkyg said) since most of the icons displayed on the desktop wouldnt show anything differant in thumbnail view anyways.
Why are you trying to use the thumbnail view on the desktop? Maybe your desired outcome can be accomplished a differant way.
Why are you trying to use the thumbnail view on the desktop? Maybe your desired outcome can be accomplished a differant way.
Well, I guess I conceed there is no real reason why I would want it like this, but I have a jpg on my desktop and it would be cool to have a thumbnail rather than that weird icon for the built in jpg viewer. I realized today that gnome and kde treat icons way different from windows anyway. You never see a thumbnail for a text file in windows.
Actually, Windows XP does have this function but I am not really sure how you can implement it on the desktop. If you go into any folder that has pictures in it, you can right click and View--> Thumbnails. If anyone knows how to enable this functionality on the desktop, I would be curious to know how.
I can attest that this is possible on both linux and Mac OS X, however I've never seen it done on windows.
Its interesting how the current generation of windows seems to always have last generation Mac OS technology. 
I'd like to apologise in advance to those long standing members of this forum whom I am likely to offend by my next remark, however....
...._Nothing_ bugs me more in a forum (any forum) than when a dozen people say "No, You Can't Do Something", when YOU CAN!
Windows has included native support for displaying the thumbnail of a bitmap (.bmp) file in 'normal' explorer (ie. not the new Thumbnail view) for as long as I can remember and it is possible to display ANY file's contents as an Explorer thumbnail using an appropriate icon handler - and that includes on the desktop.
Bitmaps are easy since, as I said, they are natively supported in Windows. Open up the Registry Editor (if you're confident enough in your own abilities), find .bmp under HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT and look at the "(Default)" value on the right hand side. It'll probably be something like bmpfile, Paint.Image or OISbmpfile. Whatever it is, scroll down a bit further (on the left) until you find the same text, then expand that folder. You should see a key called "DefaultIcon" and it's "(Default)" value will probably be a file path and name, a comma and a number. Double click this value and replace the text (write it down first) with "%1" (without the quotes). Next time you look at a bitmap file in Explorer or on the desktop (you may need to restart Windows) the icon will be a little thumbnail of the image itself!
JPEG files (or many other image files) are not 'natively' supported by Windows in the same way as bitmaps, so you need to use an icon handler to do the thumbnail creation. What I'm talking about is not one of the many thumbnail generator software applications available to download: An icon handler is a dll that Windows calls to generate thumbnails specifically for display in Explorer (or the desktop). There is one built into Windows 2000/XP, but Adobe Photoshop (including Photoshop SE and Photoshop Elements) has one which seems to work better, and there may be others around.
Activating thumbnails on jpegs is almost the same as for bitmaps, although instead of modifying the DefaultIcon key (leave this as it is), you add a new key called "shellex" (if its not there already), then add another key under that called "IconHandler" and give it the "(Default)" value of "{7376D660-C583-11d0-A3A5-00C04FD706EC}" (without the quotes). If you were using the Photoshop Elements icon handler you would use the value "{C5E6BE25-7388-44f6-8700-88A2D2BD932C}".
More information about Icon Handlers (plus code to make your own!) can be found here:
http://www.codeproject.com/she...xp=0&select=435903
So, there's the correct answer!
Sincere regards,
Mark
...._Nothing_ bugs me more in a forum (any forum) than when a dozen people say "No, You Can't Do Something", when YOU CAN!
Windows has included native support for displaying the thumbnail of a bitmap (.bmp) file in 'normal' explorer (ie. not the new Thumbnail view) for as long as I can remember and it is possible to display ANY file's contents as an Explorer thumbnail using an appropriate icon handler - and that includes on the desktop.
Bitmaps are easy since, as I said, they are natively supported in Windows. Open up the Registry Editor (if you're confident enough in your own abilities), find .bmp under HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT and look at the "(Default)" value on the right hand side. It'll probably be something like bmpfile, Paint.Image or OISbmpfile. Whatever it is, scroll down a bit further (on the left) until you find the same text, then expand that folder. You should see a key called "DefaultIcon" and it's "(Default)" value will probably be a file path and name, a comma and a number. Double click this value and replace the text (write it down first) with "%1" (without the quotes). Next time you look at a bitmap file in Explorer or on the desktop (you may need to restart Windows) the icon will be a little thumbnail of the image itself!
JPEG files (or many other image files) are not 'natively' supported by Windows in the same way as bitmaps, so you need to use an icon handler to do the thumbnail creation. What I'm talking about is not one of the many thumbnail generator software applications available to download: An icon handler is a dll that Windows calls to generate thumbnails specifically for display in Explorer (or the desktop). There is one built into Windows 2000/XP, but Adobe Photoshop (including Photoshop SE and Photoshop Elements) has one which seems to work better, and there may be others around.
Activating thumbnails on jpegs is almost the same as for bitmaps, although instead of modifying the DefaultIcon key (leave this as it is), you add a new key called "shellex" (if its not there already), then add another key under that called "IconHandler" and give it the "(Default)" value of "{7376D660-C583-11d0-A3A5-00C04FD706EC}" (without the quotes). If you were using the Photoshop Elements icon handler you would use the value "{C5E6BE25-7388-44f6-8700-88A2D2BD932C}".
More information about Icon Handlers (plus code to make your own!) can be found here:
http://www.codeproject.com/she...xp=0&select=435903
So, there's the correct answer!
Sincere regards,
Mark
VirtualLarry
No Lifer
- Aug 25, 2001
- 56,587
- 10,227
- 126
Hey, that's way cool man.
I seem to recall an MS update patch, don't remember which Windows' OS version, to add support for allowing "Paint" to open or maybe save .jpg files too. I'm just guessing here, but it would seem that it might allow support for viewing of icon-ized .jpg files. I'll see if I can dig that up.
Edit: Here's one possible way, if you have Office2000 installed.
another
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