Thumbnails, what is needed to display?

[therube]

Silly question, perhaps, but with Thumbnails, what is needed in order for them to actually display?

On my home computer, Win7, thumbnails do not display.
Not in 1.4. Not in 1.5.

Preview does shows the preview, but not View | Thumbnails?

(Salamander displays thumbnails.
Ah, guess I should have seen what Windows Explorer does, but as I never use it, didn't occur to me.)


What might have I disabled to cause them to not display?

[NotNull]

Showing thumbnails requires a thumbnail handler.
This is a shell extension (just as a preview handler).
ShellExView (by nirsoft) can show you which thumnail handlers are installed.


First thing to check though is File Explorer:
Under Options > View is a setting Always show icons, never thumbnails. That one should be unchecked.

[therube]

This on a Win7 where it works:
.

thumnails works on i7.png (22.65 KiB) Viewed 2930 times

[NotNull]

Under Options > View is a setting Always show icons, never thumbnails. That one should be checked.

Did I really say checked? Should be UNCHECKED (obviously).


Is there any filetype that shows thumbnails?
- enable thumbnail view (menu:View => ...
- Cycle through all Everything filters (Picture, Document, etc)


Other than that: No idea ..

[void]

Have you disabled thumbnails in Everything?

• Copy and paste the following into your Everything search box:
  /thumbnails
• Press ENTER in your Everything search box.
• If successful, thumbnails=x is shown in the status bar for a few seconds. Is x 1 (enabled) or 0 (disabled)?

To enable thumbnails (thumbnails are enabled by default):

• Copy and paste the following into your Everything search box:
  /thumbnails=1
• Press ENTER in your Everything search box.
• If successful, thumbnails=1 is shown in the status bar for a few seconds.

Are you using the x86 version or x64 version of Everything? (shown under Help -> About -> Version)
Most thumbnail handlers will require the x64 version.
Uninstall the x86 version before install the x64 version (backup %APPDATA%\Everything before uninstalling if you want to keep your settings)



Some thumbnail handlers do not like running as administrator.
Please make sure Everything is installed correctly and running as a standard user:

• In Everything, from the Tools menu, click Options.
• Click the General tab on the left.
• Check Store settings and data in %APPDATA%\Everything.
• Uncheck Run as administrator.
• Check Everything Service. (Please make sure this is tick-checked and not square-checked)
• Click OK.
• Exit Everything (right click the Everything tray icon and click Exit).
• Restart Everything.

Everything will normally gather thumbnails with IShellItemImageFactory.
Please make sure IShellItemImageFactory is enabled (IShellItemImageFactory is enabled by default):

• Copy and paste the following into your Everything search box:
  /shell_item_image_factory=1
• Press ENTER in your Everything search box.
• If successful, shell_item_image_factory=1 is shown in the status bar for a few seconds.

If IShellItemImageFactory is not available, Everything will gather thumbnails with IExtractImage.
Please make sure IExtractImage is enabled (IExtractImage is enabled by default):

• Copy and paste the following into your Everything search box:
  /extract_image=1
• Press ENTER in your Everything search box.
• If successful, extract_image=1 is shown in the status bar for a few seconds.

No thumbnails are gathered if both shell_item_image_factory and extract_image are disabled.



If Everything is still not showing thumbnails, could you please send your Help -> Troubleshooting information to support@voidtools.com
This Troubleshooting information will contain any config changes to help find the issue.

[therube]

Have you disabled thumbnails in Everything?

No.

[therube]

Once I unchecked, "Always show icons, never thumbnails", icons ? or ? thumbnails showed up.


---


OK, now that begs the question
what is the difference between
"icons" & "thumbnails" ?

(never even considered such a thing)

might i need to "clear"
E:\Users\RUBEN\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Explorer\thumbcache_256.db
?

do i have a "thumbnail handler"
(listed in shexview ?)

(i'll note that likewise, thumbs did not display in DuplicateCleaner,
for Video [never did check Images] when i had looked, yesterday,
nor Windows Explorer [for images, before I made the change], &
now they do, for [both] video & images, in DC & WE)
.

Win7 no thumbs UNTIL unchecked Always show icons, never thumbnails.png (67.76 KiB) Viewed 2887 times

[void]

Once I unchecked, "Always show icons, never thumbnails", icons ? or ? thumbnails showed up.

Was Windows Explorer showing thumbnails with this setting unchecked?

You can override the system setting if you want thumbnails in Everything and not in Windows Explorer.

To override the system setting:

• Copy and paste the following into your Everything search box:
  /icons_only=2
• Press ENTER in your Everything search box.
• If successful, icons_only=2 is shown in the status bar for a few seconds.

icons_only

OK, now that begs the question
what is the difference between
"icons" & "thumbnails" ?

To Everything:
An icon is a 16x16 image to represent the file extension/type.
A thumbnail is a 256x256 image to represent the content of the file.

Larger icon sizes are available, up to 256x256.
Thumbnails can be smaller depending on the content.

might i need to "clear"
E:\Users\RUBEN\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Explorer\thumbcache_256.db
?

It doesn't hurt to try.
Delete this file, kill the explorer.exe process and restart explorer.exe

do i have a "thumbnail handler"
(listed in shexview ?)

Yes you have a few. (type: thumbnail or thumbnail handler)
There's no limit on the number of thumbnail handler.

[therube]

Was Windows Explorer showing thumbnails with this setting unchecked?

Oh, don't know particularly, but I'd say, not.

To Everything:
An icon is a 16x16 image to represent the file extension/type.
A thumbnail is a 256x256 image to represent the content of the file.

While I read that the other day, it didn't actually "click" until I looked again, & at that point I understood what was going on.
- file type vs. content of the file, is the pertinent part.

oh, so "icon" is the associated application 'File Type' (generic) icon,
not an "icon" /picture/ of a particular file

a "thumbnail" is a thumb /picture/ of a particular file

(re)enabling 'Always show icons' /is/ what i want, is what i've always had
(now doing that does break /thumbnails/ from displaying in DuplicateCleaner - but who cares)

enabling /icons_only=2 in Everything gives me best of both worlds,
/icons/ normally, & thumbs when i set 'Thumbnails'

just what i want.
Thanks .

(now, if i had thumbnails of "unknown" file types (to Win7), like .avi, .flv
but that may entail something i don't want to do... perhaps?)
.
.

Icon vs Thumbnail - icon is the associated .File Type. .icon., not a thumbnail of or from the picture.png (27.45 KiB) Viewed 2605 times

[void]

An icon is a 16x16 image to represent the file extension/type.

This is generally the case.
However, I should clarify:

Icon handlers can be installed to generate icons based on file content.

For example .ico files will show the icon content.

(now, if i had thumbnails of "unknown" file types (to Win7), like .avi, .flv
but that may entail something i don't want to do... perhaps?)

If there's no thumbnail handler available, the icon is shown as the thumbnail.