Adobe Community: PSD (and AI) thumbails in Windows 7 64 bit?

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PSD (and AI) thumbails in Windows 7 64 bit?

May 29, 2010 6:49 AM

Does anyone have a fix for the missing Photoshop (and Illustrator) thumbnails (CS3) in Windows 7 64 bit Explorer?

Something easy to implement that doesn't involve purchasing and running an additional 3rd party commercial solution?

Please don't answer "Bridge". I should not be forced to use an extra resource hogging application to simply view my files in my normal workflow.

I used to use the psicon.dll and aiicon.dll workaround in XP without any problems whatsoever. I know there are people here that claim these caused information loss and other nonsense like that but they worked perfectly fine. However, I had to recently upgrade my OS and unfortunately this workaround doesn't function properly in Win 7 64 bit because of the different directory structure.

I'm sure these could be made to work by rejigging the registry edit files to point to Programs (x86) but I'm not that confident in my abilities there. I've searched high and low to see if anyone else has done this yet but haven't come up with anything promising.

I was also wondering if CS5 corrected this problem? Can anyone tell me if they are able to see their PSD and AI thumbs in Win 7 64 bit Exploer with CS5?

Any help would be greatly appreciated! Thank you.

23226 Views 27 Replies Latest reply: reshacker, May 7, 2012 3:00 PM

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1. John Joslin,

May 29, 2010 7:29 AM in reply to Brad S.

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Brad S. wrote:

Can anyone tell me if they are able to see their PSD and AI thumbs in Win 7 64 bit Exploer with CS5?

No, still no thumbnails!

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2. Brad S.,

May 29, 2010 7:39 AM in reply to John Joslin

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Oh, that sucks

The people scream til they're hoarse, and no one is listening. Typical.

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3. Bill Hunt,

May 29, 2010 10:57 AM in reply to Brad S.

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Well, with one, or two exceptions, we're all just users here.

IIRC, the PSicons issue was placed into MS's court, and nothing has been done. For some OS versions, one could copy over the old .dll from previous PS/AI versions, and get the thumbnails, but at some point (XP? Vista?), even that no longer worked.

Maybe MS does not view Photoshop & Illustrator as viable apps.? Going back many years, I did see a response from MS, to the effect that things just could not be adequately updated for the then new OS release, and that all efforts to do so had been dropped. That translated to me to read, "ain't gonna' happen - sorry."

Good luck,

Hunt

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4. gener7,

May 29, 2010 3:06 PM in reply to Brad S.

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There are third party fixes for psd and ai thumbnails in Windows 64bit.

free to try/$15 to buy http://mysticcoder.net/mysticthumbs.html 32 and 64 bit installers.

To view .ai thumbs download ghostscript 32 or 64 depending on your Windows version. Mystic has a link on their page.

32 bit version does the job here. Let us know how it works for you.

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5. Brad S.,

May 29, 2010 3:32 PM in reply to Bill Hunt

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I don't know what was put in MS's court... as far as I understand things it was Adobe that removed the functionality from their applications, not the other way around. Either way there's a whole lot of passing the buck here on what should be a basic feature. From what I've read on other forums Adobe has agreed they should deal with the issue "but haven't had the time". Seriously? This may be complete hearsay and rumor but, if it's true, that's pretty pathetic.

The only problem that ever existed was the occasional "cannot be saved because the file is in use" or similar which could be dealt with by simply saving a newer version, which isn't an entirely bad habit to get into anyway. I personally haven't seen one of these errors since CS2, and the .dll workarounds have worked fine with various registry modifications in all 32 bit architecture as far as I know, right up to Win7, just not 64 bit unfortunately.

This is terribly annoying and I think it's time to get some serious dialogue going about fixing what should be a non issue.

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6. Brad S.,

May 29, 2010 3:36 PM in reply to gener7

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Thanks. I'd already found the Mystic site in my travels but I was trying to avoid it if possible. I'd like to try to get the .dlls working again but it doesn't look like that's going to happen. It's terribly sad that I have to install 3rd party scripts to reinstate what should be basic functionality of the programs and OS.

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7. John Joslin,

May 29, 2010 3:41 PM in reply to Brad S.

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Your account doesn't match the actual MS/Adobe exchange that took place right here in the forum.

Nevertheless, the continued lack of resolution between two major software companies over a matter which affects every Windows user is scandalous.

I guess neither cares enough about the users.

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8. Brad S.,

May 29, 2010 4:02 PM in reply to John Joslin

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I'm sorry I missed that conversation, I would have liked to have read it. I did search earlier but didn't see anything like that. I'm going to guess it was some time ago?

Anyways, thanks to all of you for your feedback. My appologies if I'm coming off like a pissy primadonna or something. I've had a terrible week after I aquired a virus while visiting a Wordpress theme site last Friday which walked right past my AV and rooted my box leaving me no choice but to reformat. I took the opportunity then to purchase and upgrade to Win7 from XP and now this is kind of like the icing on the cake.

I was really hoping someone would tell me that the problem was fixed in CS5. Though I know there's a ton of great new features this might have been the straw that encouraged me to upgrade from CS3, a fix to an immediate problem, but I think I'll wait awhile longer. $15 is easier to swallow to fix the issue than a grand or whatever the upgrade would cost me to step up to CS5. I guess the other fix would be to buy a Mac ... but that's not gonna happen.

I submitted a bug report for all the good it's going to do me, lol.

Cheers!

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9. gener7,

May 29, 2010 4:16 PM in reply to Brad S.

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Brad S. wrote:

Thanks. I'd already found the Mystic site in my travels but I was trying to avoid it if possible. I'd like to try to get the .dlls working again but it doesn't look like that's going to happen. It's terribly sad that I have to install 3rd party scripts to reinstate what should be basic functionality of the programs and OS.

Brad,

I've spent more time in the Adobe and Microsoft technical forums on this issue than I can count. While you and I agree Explorer thumbnail support should be a done deal,it isn't. I would rather pay Mystic their $15 one time so I can have my Explorer thumbnails and move on. It's much easier to pay someone who will than to waste time and energy with someone who for their own reasons is not going to anytime soon.

Do not let "the principle of the thing" get in the way of getting the job done. Mystic appears to do this well. (I'm using the trial and they will get my cash if all goes well.)

Gene

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10. Brad S.,

May 29, 2010 4:21 PM in reply to gener7

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Thanks Gene. I did just install them and it seems to be working fine so far. We'll see how it goes and if it keeps working without issues then they too will get my $15.

Brad

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11. gener7,

May 29, 2010 4:31 PM in reply to Brad S.

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Cool Check out the the Mystic Options in the Control Panel. I've also found out you can page through the PDF thumbnails.

Anyhow,hope it puts the issue to rest until such time either party gets it squared away.

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12. Noel Carboni,

May 29, 2010 9:27 PM in reply to Brad S.

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FYI, .psd thumbnails do not show in Windows 7 x64 Explorer with Photoshop CS5 either. Edit: Oops, I see that was already answered.

There's a psicon.dll file in the 32 bit Program Files (x86) subfolder, but none in the corresponding 64 bit area.

Anyone got a direct link to that discussion between Adobe and Microsoft?

-Noel

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13. John Joslin,

May 30, 2010 12:36 PM in reply to Noel Carboni

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Noel Carboni wrote:

Anyone got a direct link to that discussion between Adobe and Microsoft?

http://forums.adobe.com/message/1641853#1641853

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14. Bill Hunt,

May 30, 2010 10:14 AM in reply to gener7

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Gene,

Good to know that the Mystic product is working for you.

I also agree about just getting the job handled, rather than waiting for some corporation to "do the right thing."

My reflections on the icons issue is all from memory of discussions in many places and years ago. It would seem that by now, someone within either MS, or Adobe, would have taken up the cause. At least there is a 3rd party, that seems to have done so. Happens all the time.

Adobe Premiere Pro has some fair video Capture modules, but there are two better ones, SceneAlyzer Live for SD material, and the free HDVSplit for HD material. Most PrPro users feel that each is exactly what Adobe SHOULD have included, but did not. One can argue that for the $, Adobe should have added these modules, in the program, or they can buy one, and download the other and be done. Gets the job done.

Thanks for reporting on Mystic,

Hunt

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15. gener7,

May 30, 2010 9:20 PM in reply to Bill Hunt

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the_wine_snob wrote:

Gene,

Good to know that the Mystic product is working for you.

I also agree about just getting the job handled, rather than waiting for some corporation to "do the right thing."

Thanks for reporting on Mystic,

Hunt

Thanks Hunt, I also want to add the Ardfey codec as well. I've had that for a while and it works nicely,rendering quality thumbs in Explorer and Open/Save dialog boxes. It works along side of Mystic too. For those who don't know:

http://www.ardfry.com/psd-codec/?src=regdlg

We're basically a tech solutions forum,and though it may be fun to rant,and accuse Adobe,M$,and Apple of less noble motives,we want to try and get other users out of the ditch,and get the conversation going in that general direction.

Gene

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16. Noel Carboni,

May 30, 2010 10:42 PM in reply to gener7

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I know it's not much ($15 or $19.95 depending on which 3rd party solution one picks), and I'm very likely going to take the plunge soon, but am I the only one who thinks I really shouldn't have to pay more moolah to have Explorer integration of Adobe? And don't talk to me about Bridge or mini-Bridge, or a 3rd party file browswer... I don't want to hear it. Explorer does a fine job of integrating the environment save for little glitches like this.

By the way, many problems with thumbnail extraction in Windows 7 are solved by instructing it not to store thumbnails in thumbs.db files. Windows 7 only does that for compatibility, and would rather keep them in its central database anyway.

-Noel

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17. ONIRIKartwork,

Dec 13, 2011 3:41 PM in reply to Brad S.

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http://www.mysticcoder.net/mysticthumbs.html

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18. Nohjekim,

Jan 8, 2012 4:35 AM in reply to Brad S.

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I'm going to buy the plugin but I can't understand why they didn't just build this into Photoshop to start with and have a pluggin for the older versions.
It's not like they have 20 operating systems to deal with. Every new non Apple computer that I have seen, now comes with Windows 7 64.

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19. acresofgreen,

Jan 8, 2012 5:01 AM in reply to Nohjekim

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Another plug-in: http://www.fastpictureviewer.com/codecs/

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20. reshacker,

May 7, 2012 9:59 AM in reply to Brad S.

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The secret is out!

I f you install an older version of PS or PSE on your Windows 7 system, your older PSDs will show thumbnails.

If you want your newer PSDs to show thumbnails you can open them in the older program and resave them, however, if they have features applied that the older program doesn't support you may have problems.

I don't know what the newest older version with thumbs support is but v2 has it and works for me.

So far this is the only FREE answer to this problem I've discovered.

There are many other files suffering from "no thumbs support" syndrome, like PDFs which do have a free download solution. I think it is wrong to pay for something that has been a standard feature up to now, especially when it APPEARS to be an easy fix.

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21. Chris Cox,

May 7, 2012 10:27 AM in reply to reshacker

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And you pick up all the problems with the OS APIs that the older shell extensions had.
Don't install the old shell extensions - you will run into problems.

There's a good reason why Adobe had to abandon those shell extensions (and Microsoft hasn't fixed the problems yet).

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22. Marian Driscoll,

May 7, 2012 10:33 AM in reply to reshacker

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https://code.google.com/p/sagethumbs/

Free.

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23. reshacker,

May 7, 2012 11:02 AM in reply to Chris Cox

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Thanks Chris, I'll keep an eye out for those problems. In the mean time I haven't noticed any.

Thanks Marian I'll check out that link.

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24. Noel Carboni,

May 7, 2012 1:03 PM in reply to reshacker

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reshacker wrote:

The secret is out!

I f you install an older version of PS or PSE on your Windows 7 system, your older PSDs will show thumbnails.

Not really, no.
Maybe if your system is a 32 bit OS you can get that to work, but most serious Photoshop users are moving to 64 bits.

Since my post above in 2010 I've purchased the FastPictureViewer Codec Pack and been using it for quite a while - it's good.. Only thing it's missing is a codec for PSB files, and strangely they didn't seem willing to consider adding one when I contacted them. I believe Ardfry's product does.

-Noel

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25. reshacker,

May 7, 2012 1:59 PM in reply to Noel Carboni

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Not really, no. Maybe if your system is a 32 bit OS you can get that to work, but most serious Photoshop users are moving to 64 bits. Since my post above in 2010 I've purchased the FastPictureViewer Codec Pack and been using it for quite a while - it's good.. Only thing it's missing is a codec for PSB files, and strangely they didn't seem willing to consider adding one when I contacted them. I believe Ardfry's product does. -Noel

Glad to hear so many responses to this. I currently use Win7 x64 and so far it works for me as stated so I thought I'd post my experience. However, since I use other programs also not supported I have resorted to the payware approach as you all have.

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26. Noel Carboni,

May 7, 2012 2:03 PM in reply to reshacker

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Wow, that's the first I've ever heard of the old Photoshop DLLs providing thumbnails on a Windows 7 x64 system. Maybe something is running the codec in 32 bits. Are you running the 32 bit Photoshop?

-Noel

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27. reshacker,

May 7, 2012 3:00 PM in reply to Noel Carboni

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I stumbled upon it by accident so I was surprized too. My programs are x32 so I can't speak to x64 PS but you don't need them open to view thumbs in Explorer.

I'm not sure why all the hubbub since all I did was install an old program on a new system and there they were.

At any rate, I now use FastPictureViewer since I have no patience to resave all my newer files through PSE 2.

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