Windows 7: File Open dialog and thumbnails ... Photoshop

Hi

I'm not talking about PSD files here, just jpgs and other "regular" image formats. I have no problems with seeing thumbnails by default in any other software's File Open dialogs other than Photoshop (CS4 in my case). No matter what I have tried in Folder Options (yadda yadda) PS CS4 refuses to display thumbnails unless I manually choose "Icons" from the view menu once I am in the dialog. (Ideally I'd like it to automatically display Extra Large Icons.) This is driving me nuts as I work on jpg photos all day and every day. Sure I can use Bridge, but it is SO slow, or something else, but someone out there must have a fix? I can't see anything obvious in the Adobe areas of the registry and don't know enough about it to hack it myself. Grateful for any help!



I realize you can use Libraries to get thumbnails, but that's about as many clicks (or more) than File>Open>View>Ex Large thumbnails ... every single time!!

I am using Windows 7 x64, Photoshop CS4 x86

Robin

Hi Robin, here are a couple of posts that I could find related to your question.

Adobe Forums: Set thumbnail view as default in the...

How to default to thumbnails opening photoshop - FM Forums

Hope this helps!

Thanks a lot for trying, Art - I had found and read both those posts, in fact, but sadly neither addresses the problem for my circumstances. Here's what I wrote to a friend in a user group on the subject of Adobe just this morning, which might be of interest, although I doubt I'm saying anything that hasn't been said a gazillion times before!

Regards
Robin

Don't get me started on the shortcomings of Photoshop, especially considering its price tag. My biggest whinge is the inability to customize the interface/toolbars to any useful extent - which is standard in 99% of other graphics software.You can fully customize almost every aspect of everything else I own - which is most of the more recognized editors. The Photoshop interface is now so antiquated that it has become beyond a joke. I believe it wasn't improved or changed much for CS5?? You'd think that pressure from probably tens of thousands of disgruntled users would make a difference, but they are odiously smug in the knowledge that they have the best editor and can and do thumb their noses at the end users' wishes. If it wasn't (the best editor) I'd boycott it altogether on principle - fat lot of difference THAT would make to their billions!

Recently I have been trying to find a way to get Photoshop to show THUMBNAILS in the File Open dialog without having to check View Options every single time, regardless of what Windows folder options you have set. At the moment I am using Windows Libraries to get around the issue, and although that works very well it's not my preferred way of doing things - it requires a few extra clicks and MORE customizing! LOL. Please let me know if you can in fact see File Open thumbnails in CS5 - I read somewhere that you can. Of academic interest only, as I won't be upgrading anytime soon.

Furthermore, while I am bitching about Photoshop, it is TOTALLY RIDICULOUS that you can't view PSD images from Explorer, or any other MS/Windows "thing" - you just get the generic PSD icon. This is what Googling turned up, from some Adobe underling: apparently Adobe threw its hands in the air after some older version (can't remember which - pre-CS, anyway) and said that having Photoshop "see" Windows PSD image icons during general browsing was simply all too hard so they abandoned it!!! Here's what bugs me: there is a small utility program you can buy for $20 (View Photoshop PSD PSB PDD AI EPS INDD files in Windows - x64 PSD CODEC for Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP) that works perfectly throughout Windows - so if THEY can do it, why in the heck can't Adobe, considering what you pay for the program???? I probably won't get the codec as I always browse from within Directory Opus, which shows PSD files without any hesitation, as do other FREE things like IrfanView. I Google-found a utility (Mystic something or the other, also $20) that is supposed to fix everything including the thumbnails in File Open, but the trial I installed didn't work for me in any way.

Hi Robin,

You have my sympathies.

I am only an amateur photographer, so I use Picasa to organize and view my photos, and Photoshop Elements on the rare occasion when I need to touch up a photo (usually remove some offending extra from a photo of someone).

Please let us know if you do find a solution.

Thanks ..... nothing yet. I found another LONG Thread on the subject elsewhere and it seems there's no answer until I can afford to upgrade to Photoshop CS5 by which time CS6 will be out!! Picasa's a great little program ...

Cheers
Robin

i found this guys, hope its what your looking for
How to view PSD files in Thumbnail in Explorer - Flexbeta

and this
http://www.josh.biz/technical-notes/...es-in-windows/

Thanks a stack, BoohBah ... that would have saved me $20 yesterday, LOL. Actually kidding ... I spent the $20 on the Ardfry Codec because I wanted to be able to see thumbnails of AI files. (I use Directory Opus to replace Explorer, and it shows PSD thumbnails, but not AI or EPS.)

The problem for me isn't seeing thumbnails in Explorer as addressed by the links you sent, it's this:when you are IN Photoshop and the File Open dialog defaults to Details view. You can change the view to Icons (Thumbnails) but it reverts back to details every time you go back to open another file, regardless of Folder Options etc. I thought by now someone would have done a registry hack for that, but it seems not. ;( Thanks for trying,though!!

Cheers mate
Robin

Hey there. I know this isn't a solution to your problem, but you may want to try adding PS to open with context menu in Windows Explorer for jpeg's and other formats that you are working with. That way, at least you'll have extra large icons option remembered and be two clicks away from opening a pic in PS.
CS5 remembers the last option picked from the view menu in the open dialog, why CS4 doesn't do that...
cheers
P.S The workaround for psd thumbnails in explorer that bohbah posted should work. We had tut about it and here at Seven Forums, and its the same workaorund as mentioned in the previous post: Photoshop PSD files - Enable Thumbnail Previews

Hi Grimm

Thanks a stack for the input. I don't really want to associate Photoshop with anything other than PSD. I have most other image files associated with the Directory Opus viewer so I can use that from the Desktop, which I use a lot (the desktop). The DO viewer sees any PSD files I have on the desktop too. If I decide to open anything for editing I use Context>OpenWith. This might seem a strange approach to some, but it's the way I've come to prefer doing things - it suits my workflow.

Viewing PSD thumbnails in Explorer isn't my problem. Again, I use Directory Opus for pretty much everything, and it shows PSD thumbnails. (I totally detest Explorer. *G*) In addition to the tutorial you indicated, there are also quite a few freebies out there that make it easy to enable PSD thumbnails in Explorer. I bought the Ardfry codec to be able to view AI and EPS thumbnails.

What I was chasing was/is a solution to being able to view thumbnails OF ANY DESCRIPTION from within Photoshop itself. Meanwhile ...

I posted earlier about using Libraries to achieve that, but I need to amend that post. Although the Libraries icon exists in the LH panel in the CS4 File Open dialog, clicking on it only takes you to the Libraries folder instead of expanding to the actual libraries as it should. However, this seems to be a fix. In the same dialog panel, you can click on Desktop>User>My Pictures and you will get thumbnails. CS4 then remembers the (last) location opened, and for some reason thereafter File Open shows thumbnails, even if you navigate away from My Pics. There seems to be no need to go back to Desktop>User. Who knows why this works - you do, probably, but I have no idea. For all I know it's associated with the Ardfry codec. I'm just grateful that I've got there in the end!! I've been in an out of Photoshop 20 times, navigated all over the place, in the last 5 minutes and it's still working for me. But anything can and does change randomly it seems. I am going off now to back up my divine trouble free system!!

This might or might not be relevant to all of the above. To almost totally liberate myself from Windows' clutches I recently moved my User Profile to another drive, then Moved my User files (My Docs, Pics etc) to the root of that drive. (I have hidden my User profile to get it out of the way.) Now I have a nice neat uncluttered folder structure. The by-product is that a lot of other things got tidied up in the process too. e.g. For good measure I uninstalled and reinstalled Photoshop to make sure it would "see" my moved profile correctly. Only one or two minor programs were upset with the changes, and the fixes were minor too.

Cheers and thanks for everyone's patience
Robin


Anyway, sorry to ramble on about something so trivial .... I'm an old woman, what can I say??

Cheers
Robin