Windows 7: Viewing folder thumbnails like in XP?

sstavross · 04 Dec 2010

Hi robitatu! Any news of your script? Is it ready or you are testing it? Have a nice weekend!

Morgan4000 · 15 Jan 2011

Hi All - Having gone to much effort selecting particular images as thumbnails on extra large folder icons (maybe 300 folders), I am now in the position where I need to carry out a fresh install of 7 whilst still retaining these folder images. The last time I attempted this, I backed up my settings first but as drives are allocated new letters on reinstall, the thumbnailcache was lost and it seems that it was too late to reassign drive letters as they were previously. I also tried restoring a backup that I made of the thumbnailcache files, but 7 wouldn't let me overwrite the files. I'm no genius with Windows but I like my folders to look nice and it really will be a chore to repeat the tidy-up! Basically, the example folder below is how I want it to look after a fresh install, i've spent some time trawling this forum and this thread is the closest I could get...

I did read that you could rename the file to display as 'folder' but there seems to be some confusion as to whether this is a solution, just wanted to double check before I do it (it will take a lot of time...)

sstavross · 16 Jan 2011

Hi robitatu! Happy new year!
Long time to hear from you... Are you ok?

cg3001 · 09 Dec 2011

sstavross you still around, have you had any luck fixing this issue...robitatu was claiming he got fixed ? I also looking to find a solution to this...have you managed to figure something else about it ? cause it looks like robitatu will never come back to this forum for some unknown reason....

mAlam · 11 Dec 2011

Quote: Originally Posted by robitabu

Ok, I managed to get around the problem finding out a nice (but still not perfect) solution. It' still a work in progress and is not a one-click solution.

Nonetheless, it's perfect if you have 100s of directories containing music or video and you like to see related covers for each and every one in the good-old XP style (which I really prefer to the modern Seven style).

---------------------------------------------------------

Disclaimer:

Beware! I make use of a quick and dirty batch script in which I didn't write any kind of error checking; that means the script is not error proof.
I tried to be as much clean as possible and nothing inside the script is going to override or delete any file other the temporary ones it creates itself. Anyway, beware, I'm not going to be held responsible for any lost file, be carefull.

---------------------------------------------------------

The trick is to make use of Windows Seven's capabilities in using desktop.ini files to specify which icon to use as a directory thumbnail.

I created a little batch script that recursively does the following on each subdirectory inside the one it runs in:
- makes ImageMagick convert the folder.jpg file into a folder.ico file;
- creates a desktop.ini file;
- makes the directory read-only.

Step 1
I used ImageMagick ................
Step 2
Once I got a folder.ico ...............

Step 3
Last entry is needed f.......

The Batch Script

Code:

xcopy desktop.ini %1\ /h
for /r /d %%x in (*) do (
    pushd "%%x"

    convert folder.jpg .............

Syntax:
The batch script ............

Example
create_icons.bat ..........
Usage
Simply put,..................
Limits
- It does not cr.................
Pay attention
- There is no erro.............!!!

i followed your script but it's not working..
would you please help me out?

Windows 7: Viewing folder thumbnails like in XP?

Viewing folder thumbnails like in XP? problems?