Folder icons issue

[MintEU]

Hi guys.
I've recently installed Win 7 and I was delighted to run such a great OS.
The joy lasted for an hour or two before I discovered that WIN 7 folder icons can't be set to look like ones in XP.

What's the catch?
I have a large collection of music and videos (about 2Tb / 3000 folders) and I need to have a neat and relatively large preview of folders (picture inside) in order to find desired folder/file with ease.
In Windows 7, folders are set under an angle which makes pictures smaller and a bit distorted which makes harder to find your "target folder".




So, I'm asking you for a help to find a way to make my folders look like in XP (if possible) or to recommend me a nice alternative to Win 7 Explorer with option that I need (straight, flat folders with picture preview).
Thanks

 

[Maguscreed]

Perhaps something here will be of use to you.

Folder Icon Change - Vista Forums

So far as I know without somehow importing the windows xp icons into 7, you won't get it exactly the same, but looking over the the themes and customization area on the forums here may yield you some more conclusive answers. I'm just fine with the way they are in 7 so I've never messed with it.

 

[Mike Connor]

You might like to try this;

Download XP Thumbnail Music Folders For Windows 7 on CrystalXP.net - Icons & PNG

Desktop Icon Pack Collections Organized by Genre | Icon Packs | Windows Tools, Help & Guides

Regards....Mike Connor

 

[MintEU]

Perhaps something here will be of use to you.

Folder Icon Change - Vista Forums

Thanks for a quick answer but that is not a solution I hoped for.
I need a picture preview of folder, which is unavailable by that procedure you've posted.

I only get better looking folder with no possibility of picture preview.

 

[MintEU]

You might like to try this;

Download XP Thumbnail Music Folders For Windows 7 on CrystalXP.net - Icons & PNG

Regards....Mike Connor

http://www.crystalxp.net/galerie/img/th_21236.jpg
This looks interesting.
If I understand it correctly, each folder icon should be created again in Photoshop orAxialisIconWorkshop ?
If so, it would be really time consuming although the results look great.
The problem is, I have about 3 000 folders that needs to be organized neatly ..but also relatively quickly (before I die )
Thanks Mike

 

[Mike Connor]

You might like to try this;

Download XP Thumbnail Music Folders For Windows 7 on CrystalXP.net - Icons & PNG

Regards....Mike Connor

http://www.crystalxp.net/galerie/img/th_21236.jpg
This looks interesting.
If I understand it correctly, each folder icon should be created again in Photoshop orAxialisIconWorkshop ?
If so, it would be really time consuming although the results look great.
The problem is, I have about 3 000 folders that needs to be organized neatly ..but also relatively quickly (before I die )
Thanks Mike

My pleasure. Hope it achieves what you want. It doesn't take long to batch process the icons.

Regards....Mike Connor

 

[MintEU]

My pleasure. Hope it achieves what you want. It doesn't take long to batch process the icons.

Regards....Mike Connor

Thanks for your efforts Mike
It is comforting to know there is an efficient although hard solution.
But before I start drawing 3000 folder icons, I hope something else will show up.


Some alternatives to W7 Explorer perhaps?
God, pls help.. I will donate to Church or something like that..

 

[Mike Connor]

My pleasure. Hope it achieves what you want. It doesn't take long to batch process the icons.

Regards....Mike Connor

Thanks for your efforts Mike
It is comforting to know there is an efficient although hard solution.
But before I start drawing 3000 folder icons, I hope something else will show up.


Some alternatives to W7 Explorer perhaps?
God, pls help.. I will donate to Church or something like that..

If you just want to see the pictures in your folders, then set the view in explorer to Medium Icons, Large Icons, Extra Large Icons, or similar. This shows the pictures as you would like to see them. These are Videos, but you get the idea I hope? ;



I don't bother much with images, so only a few of these have images.

Regards....Mike Connor

 

[MintEU]

Only this will work




Maybe in Win 8..who knows.

Can't believe it they ruined perfectly good icons not thinking of people with large music & video collections.
Todays disk drives are huge so having nice, flat folder icons with preview are simply "must have"

 

[Maguscreed]

Have you considered just using view -> large icons?

 

[MintEU]

Have you considered just using view -> large icons?

Why not extra large?
Picture that size gets more useful (although still distorted) but only 18 of them can be placed on wide 22' screen.

That's pretty bad comparing to (probably) 50-60 icons clearly visible in XP.

Is it really impossible to find a neat alternative to W7 Explorer?

Maybe it would be the best to go back to XP and wait for W8.. maybe than they will show some common sense and realize that only flat, medium size folder icons (with picture preview) have sense when dealing with todays extremely large disk drives

 

[Maguscreed]

I do fine with win7 the way it is, and my monitor is only slightly larger than yours.
The only other thing that occurs to me is something like windowblinds which will imprint its own icons and theming over windows. I don't know if they ever gave it support for windows 7 though.
here's a link to that stuff anyhow.
Stardock.com - Your Edge In Software

 

[MintEU]

@Maguscreed

I'm loosing patience with this thing.
I will probably go back to XP but I need one thing to be sure.

Recently i bought WG Green drive and there was a thingy about proper formating that specific model I've bought (WD20EARS).

If formated under XP - it wil run slow under W7 (due to some new alignment "protocol").
If formated under W7 - it will work fine under both OS-s.

So, I formated it under W7 but if I go back to XP, what will happen ?
If I copy some new stuffs to my drive (formated under W7) using XP, will everything be ok latter, when I install W7 again (assuming that problem with "distorted icons" will be fixed till then)?

 

[Maguscreed]

that is a weird set of drive criteria, normally what I would do is install win xp first, then install windows 7, and just dual boot choosing whichever one I was in the mood for that day. (media features are way better in 7)
Your drive seems to deny that possibility though.
I could have sworn I saw a thread on this site where someone had managed to make xp style folders for win 7, but I can not find it for the life of me now.
I'm really sorry I haven't been of more help, but I'm basically at my end now.

 

[MintEU]

Thanks for your time dude and no worries, you helped enough
Bye