Thumbnail issues 1

[rrsub]

We create images where I am. We'll take an image and make , say, 4 different versions of an image with different colors, composites, etc...

The problem we have is that on XP and you ahve the folder set to thumbnail view, only the original image is show as the thumbnail for all images.

 

[00071491]

What is the extension of the image files?

 

[rrsub]

.jpg

I already tried the thumbnail cache registry hack and it still dies it. I also flushed the IE temp files.

 

[linney]

What software are you using for editing?

Sounds like your software when you save them, or more probably, XP in thumbnail view is not recognizing that there is any difference in the images. Are the images all the same in file size, screen size etc.

Does it make any difference to XP if each image was saved in its own folder.

 

[rrsub]

We're using Photoshop to change the images.

The file sizes are drastically different and if we create different folders, whether local or on the server, the original image still show as the thumbnail.

 

[linney]

Have you tried deleting all the thumbs.db files on your system? XP will create them again as you use Thumbnail View in any folder.

 

[rrsub]

There were no thumbs.db oddly enough.

 

[rrsub]

Oddly enough, XP search doesn't look for hidden files unless you tell it to so we deleted all thumbs.db from all the folders.

The problem still exists.

 

[bcastner]

So, you tried it with the available tools:

http://www.theeldergeek.com/custom_folder_icons.htm

If you are showing all hidden files, edit the desktop.ini file in the folder. Change the path from whatever is shown as the icon view, to the pathed icon you want.

 

[linney]

Can you clarify this, is it a problem with images inside a folder showing the same thumbnail when you have the several different images within that folder and are in thumbnail view.

Or is it as Bcastner is alluding to a problem of the images which appear embedded in any customized view of the folder (on the outside of the folder) containing the images.

 

[rrsub]

This is a problem where we have say 20 images in a folder.
We want the folder when we open it to have a thumbnail view.

When we have a thumbnail view, it looks like we have duplicate images where they're all different.

I'll get screen shots.

 

[bcastner]

Perhaps:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;Q292499

 

[rrsub]

Looked like a good bone but that's not it.

We're XP Pro and Office 2003 all new fresh installs on clean systems.

 

[bcastner]

Make the registry changes anyway.
There is still some meat on that bone.

 

[rrsub]

I was going to post the actual images but that would have taken too long.

I posted the thumbnails from XP (which is wrong) and I posted a thumbnil view from Red Hat 9 (which shows the actual representation of the image)

You can view it at this IP address.

140 dot <ninety-nine> dot 30 dot 106

 

[rrsub]

Registry changes didn't work.

 

[linney]

Here are some "long shots" for you.


Are you using anything like TweakUI or Power Toys?

"This can happen if you use TweakUI for XP - Explorer - Thumbnails,
and set the Image Quality too high. About mid-way or lower seems OK"

http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=...thumbnail+color%22%2Bwindows%2Bxp&btnG=Search

Have you tried moving the image folder up a few levels closer to the root of the drive to see if that may fix the problem. Sometime funny things may happen when the folder is more than 8 levels deep.
This behavior might occur if the image folder is several layers deep from the root; for example:
C:\My Documents\CorpWebs\DivWebs\SectionWebs\GroupWebs\My Web

 

[rrsub]

No TweakUI or Power Toys.

- Moved directly to the root C:\images; still the same

The weird thing is that it's on all XP systems.
We have a mix of XP Pro, XP Home (OEM for the owner) Win2000, Mac classic and OSX, Linux

The images show as thumbnails as they should on all systems that are not XP. Win2000 shows the thumbnails fine.

I wonder if it's some sort of DRM thing with the images. We shot the images so I don't really see why that could be the issue but it's really becoming unproductive now.

 

[rrsub]

More testing and observations;

It's also only does this with images taken from a digital camera with EXIF information.

Tested some screenshots and they show like they should.
Pulled various images from a plethora of cameras, with EXIF and without. Only EXIF cameras showed the original images.

I think it's a DRM thing.

 

[bcastner]

I think it is a file extension and type thing and not a DRM thing.

EXIF files do not necessarily contain a thumbnail:

Exif files contain either uncompressed TIFF images or compressed JPEG images... An Exif JPG file can also contain a stamp (thumbnail) image, which is a small copy of the main image. The stamp stamp size has been restricted to 160x120x24. That limitation has been imposed in order to conform with the ExifR98 interoperability rules imposed by Japanese digital camera manufacturers.
If you are working with uncompressed (TIFF) Exif files, the stamp size is (width x height x 24 bpp), with no limitations on width and height.

Source:

http://www.leadtools.com/SDK/Raster/Formats/Raster-Format-EXIF.htm

So, if TIFF format EXIF, there could well be an issue displaying the possible thumbnail. XP does not have a native TIFF viewer, among other potential problems with seeing the thumbnails in files of this format.

Possible workaround:

http://www.alternatiff.com/