njcrawford / EmbroideryReader

Open source .PES file viewer
GNU General Public License v2.0
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Add ability to generate design thumbnails in Windows Explorer #21

Open njcrawford opened 7 years ago

njcrawford commented 7 years ago

The most common question I get through all channels is "does it show thumbnails in the folder?", which admittedly would be a nice feature to add.

I'm creating this issue to track how many requests I get for this feature, and gather together any bits of helpful code or documentation related to Windows shell extensions.

So far I have a total of 8 direct or indirect requests for a thumbnail feature that I can find.

These are the resources that have been sent to me or found on my own to date: (some links are nearly 10 years old, so they may not work any more) http://www.codeproject.com/KB/shell/shellextguideindex.aspx http://www.codeproject.com/KB/shell/thumbextract.aspx http://www.eggheadcafe.com/software/aspnet/32011622/thumbnail-extractor-shell.aspx

The required COM object probably needs to implement ExtractImage2, and according to one email I received, the GUID for the shell's thumbnail extractor is {BB2E617C-0920-11d1-9A0B-00C04FC2D6C1}. (That email from 12/23/08 also includes an example application for shell icon integration and an installer that sets up the proper registry entries for either Vista or XP - need to extract that info and add it here)