Adobe Photoshop CS2 Thumbnails PSD File in Windows Explorer

David Polanco
A previous resident of Del Rio Texas now living in the San Antonio. Web designer, SEO, and Graphic Artist.

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Adobe Photoshop CS2 Thumbnails PSD File in Windows Explorer

Nov 11th, 2006 8:34:02 pm - Subscribe
Mood: good
Music: Lazard - 4 O'Clock In The Morning

So where did the Adobe Photoshop CS2 Thumbnails in Windows Explorer go? They simply disappeared! Well actually CS2 no longer supports thumbnail .PSD files in Windows anymore. But using the instuctions below, you can get them back in no time

Download this file to a temporary folder.
Shut down all Adobe programs.
Set a ’system return point’ to allow you to rollback the changes should anything go wrong (if your system supports it).
Unzip it to C:Program Files Common Files Adobe Shell. You could quite likely already have either of the DLL files. No matter.
Run ‘aiicon.dll.reg’ by double clicking it.
Run ‘psicon.dll.reg’ by double clicking it.

As Requested
How to Create a System Restore in Windows XP

Thats it! Go check your PSD files, they should be back!

Source:
Sitepoint - Fresh Thinking for Web Developers and Designers

131 Comments | Tweet This Post | Post A Comment

anonymous - November 26th, 2006
I've hated not having previews of psd for ever! I finally searched and found this! Thank you so very very much!
WooHoo!!! I've got thumbnails!

anonymous - December 07th, 2006
Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!! Not having psd thumbnails was really cramping my work style!!!

anonymous - December 21st, 2006
id done this with tips elsewhere but it didnt work right. i downloaded some thumbnails lite program and it gave me errors. searched again, found your page and everything is back! Thanks!

anonymous - January 04th, 2007
Hmmm, it seems Adobe removed this functionality with Windows Explorer because it can potentially delete your files... Or so I have heard!

I've never had any problems with it though, but be careful and back your work up!

anonymous - February 23rd, 2007
you, my friend, are a God. Thank You.

anonymous - March 11th, 2007
These files are a godsent. I don't understand why Adobe does not provide them. Work great with CS2 and Windows XP SP2.

anonymous - March 20th, 2007
It worked very well for me, thank-you. I prefer to use explorer to look at my files and organise them rather than the adobe bridge. I've used this reg file for months now with no problems and I'm very thankfull for you providing it for free,

anonymous - March 23rd, 2007
wow! this is amazing! it worked well
thanks a lot!

anonymous - April 17th, 2007
Me too, just wanted to say thanks!

It's been bugging me for ages...

anonymous - April 18th, 2007
hmm doesnt work for me, Im running Vista does that matter?

david - April 18th, 2007
Possibly anonymous April 18th, 2007...this has only been tested on Windows XP.

anonymous - May 05th, 2007
Nice one, thumbs back again in explorer

I'm not a fan of using adobe bridge, it runs too slow, even on a good system.

anonymous - May 18th, 2007
One BIg Thanks from Macedonia!

anonymous - May 19th, 2007
whoo, finally, thanks for this!

btw. had a hard time to find that system restore point thing in windows.. perhaps you should aim a littel more

david - May 22nd, 2007
I have a created an article on how to create a system restore point just in case things go wrong with Adobe Photoshops Thumbnail PSD Files.

anonymous - May 24th, 2007
You are a my hero! Thanks so much!!!!!!!!!!! Woo Hoo!

david - May 24th, 2007
No problem, glad to help out.

anonymous - May 25th, 2007
Thank you so much -- works just fine in Vista Home Premium. :-)

david - May 25th, 2007
Awesome bud, glad to see that its good to go. on the next generation of Windows.

anonymous - June 15th, 2007
Awsome !!

anonymous - July 05th, 2007
doenst work. do i have to reboot after installing?

david - July 05th, 2007
Nope it will automatically start working, be sure your view is in 'thumbnails'.

anonymous - July 11th, 2007
where adobe photoshop autosave file or back file has been store and how to recover those

anonymous - July 12th, 2007
I could not get the Photoshop thumbnails to work, even after rebooting, _until_ I did a manual right-click and "refresh thumbnail". The other reg file generated an error about not being able to access the registry -- even in safe mode. A few things I noticed (though changing them did not make a difference): The aiicon.dll.reg file seems to reference a file named allcon.dll, but the dll file you provide is named aiicon.dll. Also, in the aiicon.dll.reg file, there seem to be spaces or hard-line breaks in some words, such as "Ico nHandler". FYI. But, my main concern was PS. Thanks for your help.

anonymous - July 18th, 2007
I can't find the "shell" file. Can anyone help????????

david - July 18th, 2007
Create a folder in your Common Files folder and call it: Adobe Shell

david - August 11th, 2007
No you must download the file from here. From there you may go off line and install...if thats what you are referring to.

anonymous - August 20th, 2007
thank you so muuuchhh!!!! god, it's wonderful. i've been trying to fight it for such a long time!!

david - August 20th, 2007
Not a problem, glad I could help.

anonymous - September 05th, 2007
You are an utter blessing. I can now easily categorize 6 years of photoshop file sooo much easier. thank you thank you thank you!!! I kiss you.

anonymous - September 09th, 2007
It worked a treat for me - I would, however, like to know the location (path) of the entries that are placed in the registry just so that they could be removed if necessary. Does anyone know?

anonymous - September 10th, 2007
cool! it worked! thanks!

tim923 - September 15th, 2007
Extract files to: C:\Program Files\Common Files\Adobe\Shell

You may have to add that Shell folder like me. Double click both registration files.

tim923 - September 15th, 2007
C(colon)(backslash)Program Files(backlash)Common Files(backslash)Adobe(backslash)Shell

My backslash and colon didn't show up.

anonymous - September 16th, 2007
HAHA! It works like a charm on Windows XP Pro with Photoshop CS3.

Thank you so much, I've needed this forever. =D

- Stewart.CelerMedia

anonymous - September 28th, 2007
Works! Windows XP Pro SP2 + Adobe Photoshop CS2

anonymous - October 08th, 2007
thanks alot that was easy.. just took 1 minutes of my time to google it and problem solved. should have done this months back.

-davezak

anonymous - October 25th, 2007
For Photoshop CS3 and Illustrator CS3, you'll need to create the Shell directory, but other than that, it takes only a few minutes to do and works fantastic for the new Adobe Creative Suite.

anonymous - November 09th, 2007
Great! Worked with CS3 and Vista. I tried it beforehand and it didn't work. This time I did it all with administrator privileges, (including registry edit) and voila! Thanks!

anonymous - November 19th, 2007
Hi@ all!
Can someone pleace helpe to view the thumbnails under windows xp x64?!
Thanks for your help!

anonymous - November 22nd, 2007
I completed all the steps listed, but didn't help. Image priviews are also saved in Photoshop. No thumbnails. Can somebody help?

david - November 22nd, 2007
THis worked in Vista, be sure you follow the directions step by step...and if a directory doesnt exist when following these steps...then create one, and proceed.

anonymous - November 26th, 2007
Just installed CS3 on a WinXP sp2 ... got 'em back! Thumnails are go - David, you're a legend !

... now if I can just find a way to thumbnail MP4 videos from my Nokia N93i ...

anonymous - December 05th, 2007
Yes, Yes, Yes...I will throw my accolades on the pile also. A very heavy picture utilizer I was frustrated to death without psd icons and resorted to saving in (UGH) tiff but now I can go back to psd. Worked flawlessly...thank you very much! kdl

anonymous - December 06th, 2007
It worked for my XP as well. I did have to create a Shell folder within the Adobe folder, and some I have to right-click and refresh thumbnail, but nevertheless, YEA!

anonymous - December 13th, 2007
Thanks for this mod, worked great!

anonymous - January 02nd, 2008
THANKS BUNCHES - this is VERY useful and will be linked from my blog, frequented by digital scrapbookers

anonymous - January 07th, 2008
At the end, I suppose Adobe Disabled the icon to force everyone to used the Adobe Bridge, which it's good but quite clumsy! This DLLs were sent from Heaven.

OS: Windows Xp-Sp2, INtel Dual Core

anonymous - January 26th, 2008
Thanks! It was a pain not having previews of psd. I searched and found this! Thank you so much!
I ran the files per your instructions and got thumbnails!

anonymous - February 07th, 2008
What can I say... thanks a lot mate!

anonymous - February 08th, 2008
Good Work - its quite interesting and work very easily - save lots of time to recognising the files by names- THAAAAAAAAAANK YOUUUUUUUU

anonymous - February 24th, 2008
AWSOME!
thanks to the programmer and everyone or whoever brought this to the public.

(little side note, you do not need to have photoshop or any other adobe program installed, or to specify... adobe reader is the only INSTALLED program i have and the tumbnails STILL show for every psd image!)

anonymous - February 24th, 2008
when i double click it is request open file with ?? what do i use

thanks

anonymous - March 11th, 2008
I can follow your instructions to Adobe/Shell. I don't see Shell on my computer. I'm using Windows XP, PSCS2. Where do I find the Shell?

anonymous - March 12th, 2008
Thanks a lot!! Great job!

anonymous - March 12th, 2008
I tried this on Vista Home Premium, followed the steps completely and it didn't work. I really wanted this as it would save me a lot of time with work when I have to open so many PSDs just to find the one I'm looking for.

anonymous - March 14th, 2008
When we double-click on the files: aiicon.dll.reg and psicon.dll.reg (in the shell folder) we were then able to view the Illustrator and Photoshop CS3 thumbnails in Internet Explorer. However, there seems to be inconsistency in viewing the Illustrator thumbnails all the time. I've had to go back into the "shell" folder and re-click on the aiicon.dll.reg file in order to view again. Has anyone run into this? Do you know what is wrong?

anonymous - March 18th, 2008
I am running Vista with CS2, followed the directions, including creating the shell, didn't work for me. I tried it twice. I wish it had worked for me. Congrats to those of you who it did work for. And thanks for taking the time to post this. It's awesome for those it works for.

anonymous - March 20th, 2008
Why is it still not working for me?

I've tried Multiple sites with suggestions on how to fix it. Everyone seems to be able to get it to work. But I still can't.

Please, help me.

anonymous - April 02nd, 2008
your rock, unlike windows, thanks

anonymous - April 09th, 2008
Thanks. This works also with CS3. Follow the directions and see it working.

JP

anonymous - April 09th, 2008
Have you devised this solution for Vista x64 already? Please upload it man! This happens in vista also vith .wmf .pcx and other file formats wich have no problem in XP.
Greetings

anonymous - April 10th, 2008
to the guy up there with the .mp4 thumnail question i have the fix. this fix also will work for .mov files, and any other video format your cmoputer willplay, if it cant play em ,download k-lite codec pack,
anyway,

copy and paste this to notepad document, and save it .reg
then merge it to your reg, and ur done

enjoy

DsW____________________________________________

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.3gp\ShellEx\{BB2E617C-0920-11d1-9A0B-00C04FC2D6C1}]
@="{c5a40261-cd64-4ccf-84cb-c394da41d590}"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.asf\ShellEx\{BB2E617C-0920-11D1-9A0B-00C04FC2D6C1}]
@="{c5a40261-cd64-4ccf-84cb-c394da41d590}"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.avi\ShellEx\{BB2E617C-0920-11d1-9A0B-00C04FC2D6C1}]
@="{c5a40261-cd64-4ccf-84cb-c394da41d590}"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.dmf\ShellEx\{BB2E617C-0920-11d1-9A0B-00C04FC2D6C1}]
@="{c5a40261-cd64-4ccf-84cb-c394da41d590}"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.divx\ShellEx\{BB2E617C-0920-11D1-9A0B-00C04FC2D6C1}]
@="{c5a40261-cd64-4ccf-84cb-c394da41d590}"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.flv\ShellEx\{BB2E617C-0920-11d1-9A0B-00C04FC2D6C1}]
@="{c5a40261-cd64-4ccf-84cb-c394da41d590}"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.mkv\ShellEx\{BB2E617C-0920-11d1-9A0B-00C04FC2D6C1}]
@="{c5a40261-cd64-4ccf-84cb-c394da41d590}"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.mp2\ShellEx\{BB2E617C-0920-11D1-9A0B-00C04FC2D6C1}]
@="{c5a40261-cd64-4ccf-84cb-c394da41d590}"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.mpv\ShellEx\{BB2E617C-0920-11D1-9A0B-00C04FC2D6C1}]
@="{c5a40261-cd64-4ccf-84cb-c394da41d590}"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.mpeg\ShellEx\{BB2E617C-0920-11D1-9A0B-00C04FC2D6C1}]
@="{c5a40261-cd64-4ccf-84cb-c394da41d590}"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.mpe\ShellEx\{BB2E617C-0920-11D1-9A0B-00C04FC2D6C1}]
@="{c5a40261-cd64-4ccf-84cb-c394da41d590}"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.m1v\ShellEx\{BB2E617C-0920-11D1-9A0B-00C04FC2D6C1}]
@="{c5a40261-cd64-4ccf-84cb-c394da41d590}"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.m2v\ShellEx\{BB2E617C-0920-11D1-9A0B-00C04FC2D6C1}]
@="{c5a40261-cd64-4ccf-84cb-c394da41d590}"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.mpg\ShellEx\{BB2E617C-0920-11D1-9A0B-00C04FC2D6C1}]
@="{c5a40261-cd64-4ccf-84cb-c394da41d590}"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.mp4\ShellEx\{BB2E617C-0920-11D1-9A0B-00C04FC2D6C1}]
@="{c5a40261-cd64-4ccf-84cb-c394da41d590}"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.mov\ShellEx\{BB2E617C-0920-11D1-9A0B-00C04FC2D6C1}]
@="{c5a40261-cd64-4ccf-84cb-c394da41d590}"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.rm\ShellEx\{BB2E617C-0920-11d1-9A0B-00C04FC2D6C1}]
@="{c5a40261-cd64-4ccf-84cb-c394da41d590}"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.rmvb\ShellEx\{BB2E617C-0920-11d1-9A0B-00C04FC2D6C1}]
@="{c5a40261-cd64-4ccf-84cb-c394da41d590}"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.vcr\ShellEx\{BB2E617C-0920-11d1-9A0B-00C04FC2D6C1}]
@="{c5a40261-cd64-4ccf-84cb-c394da41d590}"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.wmv\ShellEx\{BB2E617C-0920-11D1-9A0B-00C04FC2D6C1}]
@="{c5a40261-cd64-4ccf-84cb-c394da41d590}"

________________________________

open note pad copy and paste above text and instead of saving it as .txt change the extention to .reg then click and click yes, and enjoy

anonymous - April 10th, 2008
i just wanna say thank you man psd files are working, i am using cs3 and just went into c: programfiles/commonfiles/adobe/shell and added your files and clicked on both reg entries, and walla

thanks buddy

anonymous - April 28th, 2008
Thank you!!! Thank you!!! Thank you!!! Thank you!!! Thank you!!! Thank you!!! Thank you!!! Thank you!!! Thank you!!! Thank you!!! Thank you!!! Thank you!!!

anonymous - May 02nd, 2008
Menno van 't Hoff
It works great with CS3 and XP SP2. Thank You!!

anonymous - May 05th, 2008
WOW Thanks a Million!

anonymous - May 06th, 2008
Thx, it works perfectly.

anonymous - May 09th, 2008
* A-W-E-S-O-M-E *

BEEN LOOKING FOR A FIX LIKE THIS FOR 2 YEARS!!!
THX!

anonymous - May 09th, 2008
recanting what everyone else has said... THANK YOU!!!
it sucked not having that preview...

sincerely,
acee
acee@w3rkshop.com

jgooda - May 15th, 2008
great, finally found it. Thanks

anonymous - May 16th, 2008
THANK YOU!!! THANK YOU!!!

anonymous - May 17th, 2008
THANK YOU!

For those having trouble and using non english Windows, try to edit the .reg files to the right folder. In my case, i'm using a portuguese version of windows and had to change:

"C:\\Program Files\\Common Files\\Adobe\\Shell\\psicon.dll"

to

"C:\\Programas\\Ficheiros comuns\\Adobe\\Shell\\psicon.dll"

to match my language folders.

Thank you very much, once again. It works like a charm...

anonymous - May 17th, 2008
Thank you so much! Especially having this up and available for the last 2 years!!
It worked first time for me on my Vista machine.

anonymous - May 26th, 2008
OMG you are my new hero! I've been tearing my hair out for about 1 year now. I have Windows Vista Home Premium/SP 1 and Photoshop CS (

.

Thank you Thank you Thank you
--Suzanne

anonymous - May 30th, 2008
snap.

anonymous - May 31st, 2008
David, I feel I must add my comment too, after looking for this solution for hours with no luck, I finally found your blog.

Absolutely fantastic! I cannot thank you enough it worked first time too.

Best wishes, Dave

anonymous - May 31st, 2008
yeah I must add my thousands thanks to the previous posts!!
Thank you very much!!!

anonymous - June 02nd, 2008
I have been unable to get this to work.

I have CS2 on an hpa430n computer (windows xp) I followed the directions exactly as stated. I did have to create the adobe shell folder. I read how some people had to right click on the thumbnail and click 'refresh thumbnail'. But when I right click on the PSD I do not have this refresh option. I tried restarting my computer but that didn't work either. Bummer.

anonymous - June 22nd, 2008
Hey, Thanks man.
CS3 + Vista = Worked like a charm

Many Thanks
Now is there any chance you could sort something out for Eps, Tif....

anonymous - June 24th, 2008
Hi, I have Windows Vista Home Preminum x64 with Adobe Photoshop CS3 Extended and I cannot get this to work. Under XP Professional however, it worked fine...

Please help!

anonymous - July 09th, 2008
Thank you! It works like a charm and was easy to do.
You might update the instructions in two ways:

1. Indicate where the backslashes in the path are, as tim93 did:
C(colon)(backslash)Program Files(backlash)Common Files(backslash)Adobe(backslash)Shell
2. Point out that some of us might have to create this (backslash)Shell directory, even if we have Photoshop CS2 installed.

Thanks again -- Bruce

anonymous - July 13th, 2008
Thanks, I've got my thumbnails back in cs2 and vista. I've no idea why I've left it so long.

BTW I had to create the shell folder and for some reason I could not extrate the files to the folder, I had to copy them there.

Thanks again.

anonymous - July 14th, 2008
I installed CS3 (on Windows XP SP2). When I tried to view Photoshop thumbnails in Explorer, I was shocked when I saw the black space where there should have been an image. Lucky for me, I found your straightforward instructions, and I've got .psd thumbnails...not to mention that you just taught me how to use System Restore. Thank you!! -- BAC

anonymous - July 16th, 2008
Just installed - works fine on Vista Business with SP1. Just one comment - it would have been nice to see what the registry files were doing before I imported them. Win9x .reg files would have let me look at them easily before taking the plunge. Cheers.

anonymous - July 17th, 2008
Can anyone help me get this to work with Vista x64? I have CS3 installed and this patch worked fine in XP Pro.

Thanks, gohan2091

anonymous - July 20th, 2008
Awesome. Works perfectly with CS3. Thanks man.

anonymous - August 04th, 2008
What the hell is wrong with these massive software companies? Why do they insist on changing things! Glad this worked, else I'd be back to using PS7.

Adobe, stop messing around with things! its bad enough that you can't use CS3 created brushes in anything other than CS3.

anonymous - August 04th, 2008
P.s Thanks a million for the fix :-)

anonymous - August 07th, 2008
Great thanks from Poland

Works very well on xp and cs2

anonymous - August 23rd, 2008
Sweet! Works like a charm.

anonymous - September 04th, 2008
Thank you, thank you, thank you....this change in Adobe was driving me nuts, I have to incorporate hundreds of images into my books, and it was a real time waster! Thanks so much for clear concise instructions.
K from Calgary

anonymous - September 05th, 2008
Excellent, just what the doktor ordered! Thanks.
-David

anonymous - September 06th, 2008
Didn't work in XP with SP2 and CS2. Figured out that the reason was that my copy of CS2 is on my E drive. Anyone else, you may find you need to change:

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{0B6DC6EE-C4FD-11d1-819A-00C04FB69B4D}\InProcServer32]

and

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{0C5B0CED-206B-4c39-B615-0EB23C824612}\InProcServer32]

to reflect the fact that we use a different drive letter. After doing that, it does indeed work, instantly

Thanks!
Phil, Wales

anonymous - September 21st, 2008
見てよ。

anonymous - September 24th, 2008
ah well if work will insist on using PCs then this makes it a bit easier...

anonymous - October 08th, 2008
Oh thank god. I just got a new PC and a new copy of PS and not having thumbnails when I have 1000's of photoshop files was a nightmare....

anonymous - October 08th, 2008
It didn't worked on Vista Ultimate with CS3.

anonymous - October 10th, 2008
It worked for me in CS2.
First I created an Adobe Shell folder in the Common files folder but that did nothing [and the refresh icon was not available when I right clicked a file]; so I tried again by creating a shell folder within the Adobe folder - that worked [I still had to right click and refresh the icon but now the option was available]!!
Thanks heaps [I only lost the icons when I installed an OnOne plug-in and their tech support made me change the registry so their software could find the right folder!!]

anonymous - October 17th, 2008
Worked perfectly for XP service pack 2 and CS3. Thanks

anonymous - October 19th, 2008
Thank You SO MUCH! I'm running Vista Home Premium and it worked perfectly!

anonymous - October 21st, 2008
Thanks!
Phil, Wales

__ i have the same problem only your comment was not helpfull at all, becuase i have no idea what your talking about, u wront , you might need to change

idn't work in XP with SP2 and CS2. Figured out that the reason was that my copy of CS2 is on my E drive. Anyone else, you may find you need to change:

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOTCLSID{0B6DC6EE-C4FD-11d1-819A-00C04FB69B4D}InProcServer32]

and

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOTCLSID{0C5B0CED-206B-4c39-B615-0EB23C824612}InProcServer32]

to reflect the fact that we use a different drive letter.

what the hell, how does that code of nonsence "reflect the driveletters" why are u so veg?
???/?

please help?

DsW

anonymous - October 28th, 2008
Cooooooooool
the best

anonymous - November 05th, 2008
Nice Nice, even the AI files are showing the thumbnails. Really Gr8

Thanks,
Param

anonymous - November 08th, 2008
Thank you so much for this, I always thought my computer was just being funny but I was amazed to suddenly see thumbnails again! I wonder why Adobe omitted this.

anonymous - December 11th, 2008
Thanxalot, man ! So useful !

anonymous - December 25th, 2008
I thank you from the bottom of my heart.

anonymous - January 04th, 2009
YAaaaayyy!! Thank you so much for keeping this available! I remembered doing this on my last 'puter (XP), and have been meaning to look it up again since I got a new 'puter (Vista, about 6 months ago now, I think?) and I have been SOOooo missing those .psd thumbnails!! I googled and found you again, followed instructions, and... it didn't work.

Then I read comments from someone else saying she had to make a "shell" folder in her c\programs\adobe folder instead of the common files\adobe folder, so I tried that... and it still didn't work.

SOoo, I decided to try a re-boot, and now it works!! YAY!! (But now I don't know if it may have worked the first time, putting the files in the 'common files' folder, or if it worked because I put it in the Adobe folder... but doesn't much matter to me - as long as I can see my psd files again (and ai too!!) I am HAPPY!

THANK YOU! ~Jill DZ

anonymous - January 05th, 2009
Sweet! Just what I needed. Thank you

anonymous - January 27th, 2009
Thanks so much for sharing this tool! You are great man!

anonymous - January 27th, 2009
Any confirmation if this works for CS4 as well?

david - January 27th, 2009
I've used it, it works.

anonymous - February 06th, 2009
OK people. For those of you who have not been able to get this working under Vista, or have had mixed results (e.g. thumbs show in some folders but not others), here is a brief explanation and the solution.

Explanation:
========
Vista caches thumbnails differently than XP did. In XP every folder with thumbnails had a hidden thumbs.db file. In Vista all the thumbnail files are cached centrally in one location.

Some of you don't see thumbnails after applying the fix because Vista is returning the thumbnail images from the central cache instead of regenerating them for any files you have previously viewed in thumbnail mode.

Furthermore, the thumbnail refresh trigger/mechanism in Vista also differs from XP. Too detailed to get into fully, but if you copy or even just move your PSD files from one location to another, then you should be able to see the thumbnails. Even simply renaming the directory they are in should allow you to view the thumbnails as Vista will generate new ones. However, that is not the solution to the problem because if you copy/move the files back to the original location or rename the directory back to it's former name, then Vista again pulls blank thumbnails from its central cache.

Solution
======
Clear Vista's thumbnail cache. How? Microsoft have already provided a tool in Vista to do this for you, it's the Disk Cleanup tool.

The Disk Cleanup tool is found under
All Programs - Accessories - System Tools - Disk Cleanup
or just hit WindowsKey + r to get the run box and type cleanmgr.exe

Select the "Files from all users on this computer" option. The tool will then do a bit of calculating and present you with a list of check-box items to choose from for cleaning tasks.

Make sure that the Thumbnails option (near the bottom of the list - you'll need to scroll down) is the only one that has a check in it and click OK.

Go back to a folder with some PSDs in it, select one of the icon views and you should now see thumbnails appear. If your files are on a network drive, it make take a bit for the thumbnails to appear, but they will eventually.

Enjoy!

anonymous - February 08th, 2009
For you vista user's who couldn't get this to work... try running the .reg files from the command line.

Go to Start Menu-->All Programs-->Accessories and then right-click the "command prompt" and choose "run as administrator".

then type cd "C:\Program Files\Common Files\Adobe\Shell"

Then type aiicon.dll.reg and accept the prompts.

Then type psicon.dll.reg and accept the prompts.

That's it. It should be working now. No need to reboot or anything else.

anonymous - February 16th, 2009
Thanks for the tip. Worked nicely.

anonymous - March 01st, 2009
Using XP. After unzipping, when I tried to open files in explorer, kept asking "with what program". Used regedit and selected import. Works a treat, Thanks very much.

anonymous - April 04th, 2009
thanks... great fix for the irritating hassle!
regards,
Andrew C.

anonymous - April 14th, 2009
Obrigado ! Funcionou perfeito mas tem que mudar a "lingua" pra funcionar no Win Brasil

Thanks ! It works perfect !! but need to change de lenguage to work in Win Brazil .....Thanks so much !!

anonymous - April 14th, 2009
Installed everything as specified even went into the command prompt in administrator mode and cleaned out my thumbnails. I have Vista 64. Any more tips?

anonymous - April 15th, 2009
I have Vista 64 and CS4. Following step by step carefully, including creating new folder "Shell" under "Program Files <x86>\Common Files\Adobe" and extract the zip file to it. Then I ran those 2 .reg files by double click it (and also by DOS prompt). I also tried to clean the catch but nothing worked so far. Any more help?
Thank you.

anonymous - May 01st, 2009
Wow thanks so much its been bugging me for yours.!!

anonymous - May 09th, 2009
For the Vista Users:

1. Make sure that the above files are downloaded to: C:\Program Files\Common Files\Adobe\Shell\
(not C:\...\Adobe Shell\

2. Make sure you do it as admin if you got UAC enabled or as a user with full control permissions enabled if UAC disabled.

It works after that.

Big thanks to the owner and original poster - man, you are a life saver.

anonymous - May 11th, 2009
May 11, 2009, 3787604 visitors to the site, old trick still works great, thanks!

anonymous - June 05th, 2009
AWESOME!!! Took more time to find you on Google than do the fix!! So gast and simple, took 30 seconds max.

Works on Vista SP1 w/CS3, no reboot, no cache refresh, no hassle. Much mahalo.

anonymous - June 06th, 2009
Can't believe it took me three years to finally ignore the person who told me that thumbnails of psd files weren't available any more and check it out myself via Google. Thank you soooooo much for these directions. It's been a pain haning to open Photoshop just to see an image. I'll add my complaints about Adobe, too. We shouldn't have to search on the net for a fix to this kind of problem. Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!

david - June 06th, 2009
No problem guys.

anonymous - June 07th, 2009
thanks so much! =D

anonymous - June 09th, 2009
Does anybody in the world have the solution for Vista x64? People have asked but no one has answered...

anonymous - June 12th, 2009
Running Vista x64. Nothing is working. Has anyone gotten it to work on Vista 64? I changed the directories to Program Files (x86) to match the location of my Adobe folder and it still isn't working. Deleted the cache. Ran from the command prompt. Tried everything suggested to no avail. Please help Vista x64 users. Thanks!

anonymous - June 19th, 2009
I remember doing something like this on my old laptop years ago and have now just got a new system. This one is a Vista machine and I had to restart to see the thumbnails - but it's working now

Thanks!

anonymous - June 22nd, 2009
anyone know about CS4?
There is a folder "CS4" inside the "shell" folder - i put the files in the shell and in the CS4 folder, run the reg files - not working

I also edited the reg files and put in the path of that CS4 folder.
Still nothing...
Any Ideas?

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