Thumbnails are incredibely slow compared to Win Explorer

[User919]

Thumbnails (on camera storage connected via USB 2.0) are terrible slow compared to Win file explorer. Even the largest one icons in Explorer are loaded much faster both first time and also on next views?

Where is the problem?

If I see this I am wondering if copying files are also much slower in TC.

Edit:
Thumbnail are even slow on HDD. I’ve noticed that occurs from time to time. Sometimes are thumbnails quite fast but not as in Explorer are. Also thumbnails directly from XnView are horrible slow.

Maybe it is question of some buffer or cache size.

There are some features of explorer in loading thumbnails that are notable:
1. Images are loaded in bunches.
2. Images are loaded first in worst resolution then in normal one sometimes.
3. Loading is flash-fast.

Probably OLE2 is not currently employed library in Win 10.

[Korutz]

I have the same problem, Total Commander makes me feel like I'm back in 90's, despite using newest Samsung SSD.

[ghisler(Author)]

It could be a problem with the virus scanner. TC puts all thumbnails in a database. This is opened, accessed and closed for each thumbnail separately, to be able to have multiple Total Commander instances. Some scanners scan the enire file each time it is opened, which can take a lot of time.

You can try whether it makes any difference when you temporarily disble thumbnail caching. For this, you need to go to Configuration - Option - Thumbnails, then delete the location of the thumbnail database and click OK. You should keep a copy of the name in case you want to use it again.

[ohaldi]

I also have this problem since a few month!
I deleted the directory %$LOCAL_APPDATA%\GHISLER.
But compared to Explorer or XnView it is still very slow.
Regards
Otto

[Horst.Epp]

For me there is no big difference between TC and Windows Explorer.
The thumbnails even for large dirs are build in a few seconds.
Only FastStone Image Viewer with its own database has no delay at all for allready visited dirs.

[Matrix]

To User 919

The way I've gotten around the item is using Irfanview viewer for viewing photo files and creating user shortcut with the letter 'T' inside commander.

I.e. navigate to a folder full of photo's, then push the letter T and thumbnails come up super quick in a separate window. As quick as windows.

You can create a button if you wish but I tend to use the keyboard for shortcuts.

"C:\Program Files\IrfanView\i_view64.exe" /thumbs

https://1drv.ms/b/s!An0ijV1D1eznjPpU7LvMRVFsA3J6pg?e=5RFGP8

Total Commander is the best.

[Matrix]

I've made some short video clips to compare the difference between the two options:

Internal Commander thumbnail option:
https://1drv.ms/v/s!An0ijV1D1eznjPpWWuPrIdWx1d-KPA?e=fyX08x

Irfanview Thumbnail option:
https://1drv.ms/v/s!An0ijV1D1eznjPpVbwV0z9Z8qeYQjg?e=iXnBva

[ghisler(Author)]

You can try to exclude files from extraction via plugins, so they will be extracted via Explorer. One slow Lister plugin like ulister can slow down the thumbnail extraction a lot, but may provide thumbnails for file types not supported by the explorer.

Please go to Configuration - Options - Thumbnails. Then change the edit box behind "Get for lister plugins for:" to something like this:
*.* | *.png *.jpg *.gif *.bmp

This way the listed extensions will not sent to Lister plugins for extraction.

[mrle]

Today, every JPG file made with a camera, smartphone etc. has thumbnail image in exif. If there is no, very easy can be made with GraphicConverter.wcx - https://totalcmd.net/plugring/graphicconverter.html

When decFastThumbs.wlx - http://totalcmd.net/plugring/decftumb.html is debited to display thumbnails of JPG files in Total Commander, it displays thumbnails images from exif. Unlike IrfanView, XnView, TotalCommander - which are creating thumbnails from JPG files.

If exif thumbnails are the same size as furnished thumbnail size to display in TotalCommander configuration - on my 10 years old laptop, several hundred or thousand thumbnails are displayed for e.g. 1-2 seconds. If they are not the same size, it may take 1 second longer. Anyway, I can't scroll so fast in TotalCommander's panel. .. All that without making any databases.

[Hacker]

mrle,

If exif thumbnails are the same size as furnished thumbnail size to display in TotalCommander configuration

Not sure if there are any thumbnail dimensions specified in some EXIF standard, but many of my JPGs have thumbnails with dimensions of 160 x 120, which is really really small considering today's 4k screens. So you either need to upscale, which does not improve image quality, or create a smaller image for thumbnail display from the original image.

Roman

[ohaldi]

Hello to all,
First of all, a happy new year to all of you.
Thank's for all this information. In fact my problem must not come from Total Commander. Sometimes, when I want to open a file with another application, there is a waiting time before the file list is displayed. It's a bit like wanting to read a file from a CDROM. I think it's time to reinstall my Window 10, which is already many years running.
It may also be a mistake, that I have tested some utilities!
I also disabled the antivirus but it doesn't change anything.
On my Notebook it seems to work with a good speed. I don't have this waiting time before the images start to display.

[petermad]

2mrle

When decFastThumbs.wlx - http://totalcmd.net/plugring/decftumb.html is debited to display thumbnails of JPG files in Total Commander, it displays thumbnails images from exif

Unfortunately only available for 32bit TC

[mrle]

^

Yes, only 32-bit.

mrle,

If exif thumbnails are the same size as furnished thumbnail size to display in TotalCommander configuration

Not sure if there are any thumbnail dimensions specified in some EXIF standard, but many of my JPGs have thumbnails with dimensions of 160 x 120, which is really really small considering today's 4k screens. So you either need to upscale, which does not improve image quality, or create a smaller image for thumbnail display from the original image.

Roman

You can simple (batch) (re)create just exif thumbnails with GraphicConverter.wcx, without changing anything in JPG image quality or anything else, without changing other exif data, without changing files date/time... Of course, the file size must be changed.

GraphicConverter.ini:

[Setup]
ThumbnailSize=320

BTW, this are great TC plugins for "opening", "unpacking", "viewing" "files" inside JPG:

http://totalcmd.net/plugring/decJpeg.html
https://totalcmd.net/plugring/decMetaexp.html
https://totalcmd.net/plugring/decJsg.html

[Hacker]

mrle,
I appreciate the suggestion and maybe one day I will make use of it but I don't really like to touch the originals and perhaps prefer storing the thumbnails in a more efficient format than JPG.

Roman

[User919]

You can try to exclude files from extraction via plugins, so they will be extracted via Explorer. One slow Lister plugin like ulister can slow down the thumbnail extraction a lot, but may provide thumbnails for file types not supported by the explorer.

Please go to Configuration - Options - Thumbnails. Then change the edit box behind "Get for lister plugins for:" to something like this:
*.* | *.png *.jpg *.gif *.bmp

This way the listed extensions will not sent to Lister plugins for extraction.

This one solved the issue. I see most significantly this issue in a folder with size of 3.14 GB that holds 493 files.