Solved Folders as icons, pictures as thumbnails

[Anixx]

Is it possible to show folders as icons in Windows Explorer rather than thumbnails while still having images and videos shown as thumbnails?

 

[Butters]

I wish.

I'm sure there's some way to do this, but I don't know how. I've been looking for a way to do this for years (since the days of Windows Vista).

 

[giova]

xmmm...I am wondering the same thing.

 

[Butters]

Sorry to bump such an old thread, but I've found a solution to this.

Step 1: Disable all thumbnails (don't worry, we'll get our file icons back soon enough).

Step 2: Download the program SageThumbs.

Step 3: In the SageThumbs settings, choose the file types you want to display as thumbnails.

Step 4: Enjoy no more live folders!

 

[Anixx]

I knew about this but in my view it is not exactly a good solution. The set of filetypes for which it can display thumbnails is smaller than what Windows thumbnailer can.

 

[Butters]

I knew about this but in my view it is not exactly a good solution. The set of filetypes for which it can display thumbnails is smaller than what Windows thumbnailer can.

After trying if for a while, I actually agree with you. I find it pretty annoying not having filetype icons. Plus, thumbnails are loaded significantly slower.

I'm pretty sure imageres.dll is what handles icon rendering (not alignment, so modifying that won't solve our 32x32 icons issue) so that's where I would start looking.

 

[Anixx]

I am quite sure Live Folders can be disabled via registry, by unregistering the preview handler for the folder file type.

 

[Butters]

I was wondering if that could be the case. Do you have any idea where in the registry that would be?

 

[Anixx]

Step 2: Download the program SageThumbs.

SageThumbs does not work with PDF files which is very important for me.

 

[Butters]

Nor does it work with video files AFAIK. It's especially problematic when you are viewing icons that are 16x16px (details view or small icons) when it doesn't show a filetype icon, but rather the thumbnail (which is useless with 16x16 icons).

I've done a bit of messing around, and I have found some of the icons in imageres.dll that are used in live folders. However, I don't think we'd get very far by simply editing these though (due to the way Windows renders live folders). I think it would be better to fully disable folder thumbnails whilst not messing with picture thumbnails somehow. I'm sure some modification can be made to imageres.dll, but I currently don't know how it would be done.

 

[Anixx]

By the way, if to set a custom icon for a folder, Windows does not display it as live folder. I wonder if it is possible, to make ALL icons custom in the same sense?

 

[Anixx]

By the way, I have recently changed the icon for the folders to this one. I like it more. The reg file is attached.

 

[Butters]

Interesting icon scheme, are those the icons used in MMC?

Windows stores data for custom folder icons in a Desktop.ini file, which will be created in the folder that the user applies a custom icon to. I have never been able to get a Desktop.ini file to work simply by copying it from one folder to another; it must be generated by Windows. The only other alternative I could think of would be to right-click on every single folder and changing the icon in the customization tab under properties. So I'd say changing every folder to use a custom icon is probably not the best way to go, unfortunately.

 

[Anixx]

Interesting icon scheme, are those the icons used in MMC?

Yes.


I think it is the theme initially developed for Longhorn, but later left unused because of introduction of live folders.

 

[Anixx]

I found a way to disable the Live Folders. Disable the "Typed Data Thumbnail Handler" shell extension with ShellExView utility. After I had done this, folders are shown as folder icons while pictures, videos and pdf files are shown as thumbnails. Also folders are shown as thumbnails when large icons view is enabled. In short, everything works as desired.

 

[w7pro]

By the way, I have recently changed the icon for the folders to this one. I like it more. The reg file is attached.

Looks good. I will give it a try. Thanks!

 

[Butters]

Great work, Anixx. I'll try it for myself.

 

[Butters]

I can't seem to find the "Typed Data Thumbnail Handler" extension in Windows 7 x64, though I did find it on Windows 8. I'll keep looking, maybe they renamed it. Could you perhaps post the CLSID for the extension?

 

[Anixx]

CLSID: {7c67eb93-8eff-4e48-889f-45ba299bc46f}

 

[Butters]

Yeah, that CLSID doesn't seem to exist on Windows 7. Strange...