thumbs.db viewer

[solid]

Hi all.
Is it possible to somehow view or extract the content of windows' thumbs.db file with TC (plugin) or external prog?

[SanskritFritz]

Why would you want it? It is only a cache for windows explorer thumbnail view mode AFAIK.

[JohnFredC]

Why would you want it? It is only a cache for windows explorer thumbnail view mode AFAIK.

"only"?

Well, since it is the cache, perhaps the thumbnails that have already been prepared and reside within it could be read quickly instead of having to be recreated every time you view the folder.

I am opposed to the proliferation of image caches and think all file managers (not necessarily image managers) should use the Windows image caches and caching mechanism instead of private ones.

Of course, if your images are small, you wouldn't care, but my images are large (4k x 20k pixels) and that little .db file cache is invaluable.

[SanskritFritz]

Oh, I see!

[Lefteous]

2JohnFredC
I have listed some pros & cons about storing thumbs in a single dir instead of saving them in a central database:
http://www.ghisler.ch/board/viewtopic.php?p=31615#31615

[solid]

Why would you want it? It is only a cache for windows explorer thumbnail view mode AFAIK.

2JohnFredC explained one reason why. Another is that only this file can be send on email for preview of whole dir of images (for users who found making index prints or or some other methods too complicated)

I'm sure someone else can find other uses.

[ghisler(Author)]

Unfortunately thumbs.db isn't documented by Microsoft, and there are no documented functions to access it either. Therefore I will have to use my own database in TC 6.5. But I don't think that too many users would use both Explorer and TC in parallel for thumbnail viewing.

[JohnFredC]

A competitor (Servant Salamander) reads image thumbnails directly from the Windows db files (and very quickly, too!), so a method of reading the images must be publicly documented somewhere.

I expect that there must also exist a windows system call "refresh db file" that would trigger explorer to refresh the thumbnail data in a folder. Obviously, explorer itself executes that trigger when you enter a folder in thumbnail mode.

It probably isn't necessary to understand the structure of the db file itself.

Just guessing.

[ghisler(Author)]

I think that Servant Salamander is using reverse engineering to access thumbs.db, there is really no official documentation. Unfortunately reverse engineering is illegal in many countries.