• Home
• Web Design Services
  • Website Design
  • One Page Websites
  • E-commerce
  • Search Engine Optimisation
• Portfolio
• Frequently Asked Questions
• About Josh.biz
• Recommended Links

< Return to Index

Josh.biz Technical Note 6 - added July 2007

View thumbnail images for Photoshop PSD files in Windows XP Explorer

One great feature of Photoshop 7 was the fact that thumbnails of the PSD files were displayed when browsing Windows XP folders. This feature is essential is you have hundreds of PSD files in a single folder, as I often do.

Unfortunately, Adobe removed this ability due to issues with the DLL file conflicting with Windows XP. So what are our options?

Well, we can either use the Adobe Browser that’s included with Photoshop, additionally you could use a third party tool like IrfanView to browse the thumbnails. Personally, I just want to continue utilizing Windows XP and Photoshop the way that have for the last few years. If that sounds like you, then read on.

Keywords

adobe photoshop, thumbnail, icon, psd, windows xp, explorer

Solution

The solution is very simple and takes less than a minute to implement. You don't need to even reboot Windows. The change is immediate.

1. Download the file, photoshop_thumbnails.zip (62kb)
2. Copy psicon.dll to C:\Program Files\Common Files\Adobe\Shell - if this folder doesn't exist create it
3. Run Adobe.reg
4. You now can view PSD files in Thumbnails view within Windows Explorer.

If any of the links above fail consistently please .

Additional Notes

This process has been successfully implemented for Windows XP Professional (Service Pack 2) and Adobe Photoshop CS2. I believe it should be successful for all versions of Photoshop since Version 7 and may also be successful for Windows Vista. Your would be appreciated.

Update: Feedback reports that this technique can (but not always) be successful with Windows Vista running Adobe Photoshop CS3. Thanks to Leanne, who reported that it worked with Vista and CS3 but only after rebooting. So try rebooting...

It has been reported that this technique does not function for Photoshop CS3 with Windows Vista 64.

Back to the top

Whilst we endeavour to ensure that the information on this website is correct, we do not warrant its completeness or accuracy; nor do we not commit to ensuring that the website remains available or that the material on this website is kept up-to-date.