Preload Explorer Thumbnails

[Ian]

I've found a really useful tool for pre-loading Windows 10 file thumbnails. If you've got a lot of photos, this is a really handy utility (I wish Windows 10 could do this by default!):

GitHub - bruhov/WinThumbsPreloader: WinThumbsPreloader is a simple open source tool for preloading thumbnails in Windows Explorer.

WinThumbsPreloader is a simple open source tool for preloading thumbnails in Windows Explorer. - bruhov/WinThumbsPreloader

github.com

You can right click any folder and use this utility to generate thumbnails for every file within it. Means browsing the folder is much quicker when you have a lot of media files.

 

[Regedit32]

That seems like a useful tool to have.

If you did a search of your drive to locate all image files, and set it to Thumb nail view, does that not then generate a .db for thumbnails to ensure they load each time you open a specific folder? Or am I missing something here.

 

[Regedit32]

I got one of those prompts from the Insider program just a moment ago asking if I was satisfied with File Explorer.

Personally, I am, but I took the opportunity to provide them the link to your WinThumbPreloader and asked whether they would consider doing something similar in File Explorer

 

[Ian]

That seems like a useful tool to have.

If you did a search of your drive to locate all image files, and set it to Thumb nail view, does that not then generate a .db for thumbnails to ensure they load each time you open a specific folder? Or am I missing something here.

It does, but it only does it for the thumbnails in view. I store all of my photos on a NAS and lots of them are from a DSLR with huge file sizes - it takes about 20 seconds to generate the thumbnails in the current explorer view window. As soon as I scroll down, I need to wait another 20 seconds. Using this tool, I generated thumbnails for every single photo on the NAS, so it's instant.

I got one of those prompts from the Insider program just a moment ago asking if I was satisfied with File Explorer.

Personally, I am, but I took the opportunity to provide them the link to your WinThumbPreloader and asked whether they would consider doing something similar in File Explorer

That is perfect timing . I would love it if there was a background process to generate thumbnails, or a way to force pre-caching.

 

[davehc]

I only had a quick, but couldn't quite figure out how you finally looked at the pictures. But , looking at the examples on the site, isn't it much the same as having "extra large Icons" from the view:

 

[Ian]

I only had a quick, but couldn't quite figure out how you finally looked at the pictures. But , looking at the examples on the site, isn't it much the same as having "extra large Icons" from the view:

All the app does is generate those thumbnails you see in explorer, rather than the app being a viewer in itself. So if you've got 1000's of photos on a slow drive (like me), it pre-generates the thumbnails so they appear instantly in explorer .

 

[davehc]

gotcha. There are quite a few "photo" programs around, which can show the whole lot on request (I use Ashampoo Photo Commander). Buy, the utility you point to, seems to have it all ready for a looksee.
fwiw. You are probably aware that the built in "photos" can have them ready for you to look at.

 

[Bighorn]

I opened Photos a few minutes ago, hadn't really used it in awhile because it took longer to load than Windows Photo Viewer but it opened this time with thumbnails rather quickly. Got a surprise after closing it with this message:

 

[atesy]

I've found a really useful tool for pre-loading Windows 10 file thumbnails. If you've got a lot of photos, this is a really handy utility (I wish Windows 10 could do this by default!):

GitHub - bruhov/WinThumbsPreloader: WinThumbsPreloader is a simple open source tool for preloading thumbnails in Windows Explorer.

WinThumbsPreloader is a simple open source tool for preloading thumbnails in Windows Explorer. - bruhov/WinThumbsPreloader

github.com

You can right click any folder and use this utility to generate thumbnails for every file within it. Means browsing the folder is much quicker when you have a lot of media files.

Ian... This is just awesome. Amazing. Thank you very much for sharing this. I was searching for a plugin like this since months, tried several not properly suitable softwares... And this one here... This is working. Unbeliavable.

 

[Ian]

You're very welcome! I really like this bit of software .

Welcome to the forum @atesy!

 

[gordonbennett]

Brilliant. Can I ask if the preloading persists between computer reboot?

 

[Bighorn]

I tried it when seen over a year ago and had to reload at each reboot but since I seldom reboot not a big problem, just haven't needed to recheck it. I do store most images on NAS drives so that may have an effect.