PSE9: No thumbnail images of PSD files in Windows Explorer

Hi 99jon,

Thanks for the heads up, but I don't shoot in RAW so the new codec won't do me any good.  (If it's automatically installed by Windows Update, then I guess I might already have it, tho....)

<rant> I still think it's inexcusable for Adobe not to provide a shell DLL so its proprietary image formats would display in Windows Explorer, which is why I left that angry message on the photoshop.com forum. </rant>

Ken

Thanks for the info.  I'm real hesitant about installing code from developers whose track record I don't know that well, so I'll just suffer along on this one....

Ken

Yeah, I've heard that too, but I'm not buying that excuse:

1. It's not MicroSoft's responsibility for making someone's thumbnails work.  MS provides the documentation (I assume) for developers to write code for a DLL to display thumbnails in Windows Explorer.  It's up to the developer to do it.
2. Other software programs which use a proprietary image format do supply those DLLs.  Three examples that I use on my PC are:
       a.  Corel's CorelDraw and PhotoPaint install the appropriate shell DLLs to display their native files as thumbnails.
       b.  Xara also provides a 64-bit DLL which, when manually registered, displays their native file format as thumbnails.
       c.  The open-source Paint.Net group registers the DLL to display their native format as thumbnails.
3. God knows that those three, and especially the Paint.Net group, don't have the hundreds of millions of dollars and hundreds of developers that Adobe does, yet those three chose to do the right thing and provide what I consider to be an essential feature.
4. Apparently this has been going on for a long time -- certainly long enough for Adobe to write the darned code, if only Adobe had the will to do it.

PSE9 is the only Adobe product I currently have purchased and this issue just sticks in my craw.  Other than that, I've got nothing but praise for the program.

Ken

Yes, thanks for that link.  I'd come across their product before and I was impressed with their documentation of their work to be compatibile with Win7.

If push comes to shove, that's likely the product I'd purchase.  Until I get too frustrated by not having PSD thumbnails in Windows Explorer, I'll stay on my high horse and wait for Adobe to provide the functionality.

Kinda begs the question of why Adobe can't write a DLL when others can, doesn't it....

Ken

I won't argue about what business decisions went into not providing the shell DLLs (I certainly don't have access to that information), and I agree that providing the DLLs won't make much more money for Adobe.

My main point is that providing the thumbnail capability is the right thing to do.  Call that a moral argument if you will, but that's how I see it.  I agree that the business types would like to see some justification, but that's not the issue.  It all comes down to deciding what's right, and when "what's right" can't be quantified in a spreadsheet, the business types and executive types have to rely on their own sense of responsibility.  I'm saying that they've abandoned that responsibility.

Technical issues of providing the capability are solvable, as is shown by the FastPicViewer codec for which you provided the link.  It's just a matter of having the will to do it.

Ken

XnView also can display PSDs and I assume there are other apps that can do so too.  Still need the ability to see the thumbnail previews in Windows Explorer, which is used in the File...Open dialog of Windows apps.

Ken

Thanks for that link.  Looks like a definite contender if Adobe doesn't come through; although as I said before, it comes down to a matter of trust in the developer.

Ken

Trust in the developer of SageThumbs.  I don't have time to review his code (don't know C, anyway), so I just have to go with the pedigrees on the home pages.  That's why I'm leaning towards the FastPicViewer codec.

Ken