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bruhov / WinThumbsPreloader

WinThumbsPreloader is a simple open source tool for preloading thumbnails in Windows Explorer.
MIT License
563 stars 38 forks source link

Portable version? #32

Open AlanEdd opened 5 months ago

AlanEdd commented 5 months ago

Is there any way to use this as a portable version ? I am trying to but when it runs on command line... the welcome screen is just popping up. I need to run it as non admin without installing. Possible ?

VL4DST3R commented 5 months ago

I've used this as if it were portable for a long time and it worked just fine, however I would suggest trying the updated fork here.

AlanEdd commented 5 months ago

Thank you for that, no the standalone from the fork doesn't work for me either, I left a message on the updated fork. Thanks for the reply.

AlanEdd commented 5 months ago

Yes! that seems to work, thank you so much. [path to winthumbspreloader.exe can't have non standard characters]

As a general question about this software: It preloads the thumbnails, does that mean that it loads them into RAM for the session and that it is flushed on restarting the machine ? I see how it works but don't fully understand what is happening behind the scenes...

Thank you ! Alan.

VL4DST3R commented 5 months ago

As a general question about this software: It preloads the thumbnails, does that mean that it loads them into RAM for the session and that it is flushed on restarting the machine ?

It calls the windows API to generate cached thumbnails in the same manner you can generate them yourself by opening a folder inside file explorer with images or video and letting their thumbnails load up naturally.

They all get saved inside a series of databases stored in your users folder (on your drive), and do not get removed unless windows itself decides (for one of a plethora of annoying reasons) to erase them and rebuild them from scratch, which can happen from anything from running low on disk space to crashes, windows updates or even restarts.

AlanEdd commented 5 months ago

Ah so it builds up the Windows Thumbnail cache then... %LocalAppData%\Microsoft\Windows\Explorer\ Is that correct ?

VL4DST3R commented 5 months ago

Precisely. Before the V2 fork added features to backup and restore those files inside the app UI itself, I used to copy and restore them manually after a wipe.

freemedom commented 2 weeks ago

AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Explorer\thumbcache_xx.db