When browsing the folders with tons of images using Windows File Explorer, do you see application-based icons for different file formats and no preview in the preview window like in the image above? Then, I have a solution for you! And, it is highly affordable. If you could View the images in Windows Explorer, you could maintain the files more easily, you could pick the correct file and drop it on an application to open it and in general be a lot better informed about what is where on your storage drive.
In the earlier incarnations of Windows, Microsoft used to provide a downloadable CODEC pack that would allow viewing a good number of file formats in File Explorer. For some reason, this download is no longer available from Microsoft and I felt the lack of it until I found the solution last year. Many file formats are COded and they need to be DECoded to be viewed. Image files are in this category. The Windows File Explorer can preview some image file formats and show small thumbnails but cannot handle most digital camera formats.
My searches for viewing the images in Windows Explorer lead me to a genuinely useful piece of software, the FastPictureViewer CODEC Pack. It supports a very large number of file formats and there is nothing you need to do after downloading and installing it on your computer. From that point on, you will be able to set the file display as icons in three different sizes and your preview panel, when activated, will display a larger version of the file currently selected. In other words, the opening image which could not display anything but application icons will turn into a screen like the one below.
As you can see, the FastPictureViewer CODEC Pack can handle all the image files you can throw at it, there are many formats I have not even heard of that it can handle. Additionally, you can very easily set the icon size to display small, medium, large, and extra large icons on the file display panel. See the images below to get an idea. The first image is showing the large and the others, extra large icons. The last image shows the context menu when you Right-Click on a file name where you can pick the icon size.
You can try out the CODEC Pack if you like, but even the paid version is highly affordable at $9.99 for what it does. Although I could not make heads or tails of their FastPictureViewer, the CODEC Pack is worth the money.
Haluk Atamal says
Thanks for the tip, Cemal.
Being a too-conservative madman from the DOS days, I never use icons, neither like them. My explorer pages are not too different from what we used to get from a “dir” command.
On the other hand, Windows makes me go madder when from time to time it switches to icon view, without my consent, against my viewing permissions. This happens when I make a search, for example, “files modified yesterday”. I would really appreciate some software to totally disable all kinds of icons from my OS.
Stay well!
Cemal Ekin says
Haluk, coming from the days of the TRS-80, then MS-DOS and CPM, most of the time I am like you. I prefer to see a list of files in the Explorer. However, when I want to pick a particular image file viewing large icons certainly helps, and I switch to the icon view. Even if you don’t use the icon view, this CODEC pack can display the selected image in the preview panel. Now, that is helpful, right?
Take care,
Cemal
Haluk Atamal says
Forgot to mention that I have gone really modern by using long file names for the last few years. It is true that up until 2010 or so, I used to stick to 8 character filenames :)
Just for your morning smile. Best regards to Jan and you.
Cemal Ekin says
Ditto! I am very frugal with the number of characters too. You can embed a lot of information into the file names without going crazy long. My image files all have their original names given by the camera. Great minds think alike!!
Elif and Mina are visiting with us, enjoying the company. Hello to all around you.
Cemal