Windows 7 - Show thumbnails for special image formats

Question

I have several images on my computer some of them are in special image formats like .hdr, .exr, .tif. WIndows shows thumbnails previews for common image formats only, e.g .jpg, .png. How can I get thumbnail previews for the special image formats as well?

Solution

While SageThumbs or XnView work well, they are overkill (in terms of disk space, memory, and CPU usage) for just showing .hdr file thumbnails. For that, you only need one small (56 kB) DLL from Microsoft:

1. Download the (enormous, half-gigabyte) DirectX SDK from Microsoft.
   http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=6812

2. Run the installer and install only the Utilities. (This requires the Runtime to be installed, too.)

3. Copy the file TxView.dll from the Utilities\bin\x64 directory in the DX SDK directory into \Windows\System32\.

   • If using 32-bit windows, use the x32 directory instead.

4. From the command-line:

   cd \windows\system32
   regsvr32.exe TxView.dll
   

That's it! You can now delete the remaining 142MB of Utilities installed by the SDK. You don't even need to restart Windows Explorer, just F5 in a folder with .hdr files and you'll see thumbnails for them!

Comments

[MonkeyZeus]

I am 99% sure that these thumbnails are created by the program which recognizes the file. Think of how some PDFs show a preview, this is because Adobe Reader reads the file and renders a jpeg for Windows to use. If Adobe Reader was not installed then you would not see a preview. What program are you using for these HDR files?

[Vader]

@MonkeyZeus Photoshop is currently set to be the default program to open these files.

[MonkeyZeus]

I see, you might need something like this: code.google.com/p/sagethumbs or this mysticcoder.net/mysticthumbs.html or this poppeman.se/pictus

[MonkeyZeus]

Something here too: sevenforums.com/general-discussion/…

[Shazvi]

This link - though it focuses on .psd - might have something for you.

[Admin]

This worked except pressing F5 didn't work. I had to restart my PC. Also, I couldn't find the "DX SDK" directory at first. It's located here - c:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft DirectX SDK(Month Year)\.