Thumbnails in XP?!!!

I have tried everything and can't seem to resolve an issue regarding Windows Explorer not displaying thumbnails correctly. It happens to system chosen folder previews, user customized folder previews and once in a while even to file previews. It randomly selects some to gray out, (not show in full color but more like it has an overlay). When I open a folder with thumbnail view selected, I seldom, if ever get to see all of my thumbnails correctly.

Something peculiar to note is when I use any other software's file browser, the thumbnails, if available, are seen just fine. I have searched all over the web and have found the registry keys which support size and quality of thumbnails and have even used 'TweakUI' to set them back to something standard, to no avail. I've even deleted all 'Thumbs.db' files and changed the icon cache size and deleted and restored it too. I've played with settings till I was late for work and still haven't fixed it. I have gone through a great deal of work customizing a vast video library which needs the thumbnails for proper browsing. This is something I will HAVE to fix!

One thing that comes to mind is that I installed a tweak a while back which was not very useful to me so I got rid of it. The plugin was supposed to allow me to view .tng and .png files in thumbnail view. It wasn't worth it because the screen would flicker whenever I opened a folder in thumbnail view. I haven't thought of it since because everything seemed normal after I uninstalled it. Guess I could have been wrong.:-o

Does anyone here happen to know a way to correctly respond to this issue?

 

As this could well be your problem, I would suggest you
press start,
Run
SFC /SCANNOW,
You will usually need your cd for the operating system in the cd/dvd drive , and windows will correct any protected files, if damaged. You will need to keep clicking on retry as it pops up, and it can take some time.(sometimes up to an hour, sitting ther with your finger hovering ready to click-

Worth a try, I have known it to correct a lot of damage.

 

I actually did remember that tool back from my Windows 98SE computer and decided to give it a try but when I typed SFC into the run command bar, I got a brief flash of a DOS style window which vanished as quickly as it appeared. I figured that maybe SFC was not available in Windows XP. But now that you gave me the scannow command, I tried it too and the same thing happened. I am really nervous about this because when I put in my OEM disk I get a message stating that the version of Windows on my computer is newer than the one on the disk, so I don't know if its safe to do a repair install if everything else fails.

By the way, when I tried SFC from a Command line window it says I have to have Administrative privileges. This is while using the only administrative account. Sometimes, Windows appalls me!

 

If you insert your cd in the cd drive, first, then , close the start up option, if it appears, or, hold down shift to stop it loading, then run sfc /scannow, it does not matter that it says it is an earlier version. What it does is repair Windows protected files, and when you go on -line, and updates of those will be sorted, but it might just repair the file causing the problem.
You could copy the i386 file from the windows cd, and save it to a folder on C: then run sfc /scannow, and that might make it look there. Perhaps someone can help on that one, as I never bothered to use it, only for replacing a file, some time ago.

 

So you get this message from a Command prompt? That is strange, as I've only seen that apply to Vista and 7, you have XP.

If, from the start menu, you right click on the Command, or maybe Cmd, selection, do you get an option to "Run as Admininstrator"? This is the procedure for XP and 7.

Then the command is sfc /scannow
Note the space before the /.

Another tool I have found helpful in some cases for XP is dialafix.

http://majorgeeks.com/Dial-a-fix_d4899.html

However, though I have Never had a problem with this, some members have experienced otherwise. So set a restore point first, check all the option boxes, and run.

 

I just tried it again and it worked this time.

The actual warning that it gave me before was that I had to be an Administrator running in console mode, (I guess that means in command line before Windows or something), anyway when I logged off yesterday I realized that my wife was still logged on and that is probably why I was unable to run it from the command box. I will try it now and post the results soon. Thank you for your input, please be patient and I will update this thread as soon as possible.

 

This is an update just to let you know how it turned out. Thank you for mentioning SFC to me, Baklogic. I had dismissed it and needed a little kick in the pants to revive my interest in the only tool besides a reinstall which could fix my issue. For those who read this thread in the future, this SFC tool IS available in XP and can be run from either Command line or from Run. It may say that you have the wrong version of windows because of updates to your system but what you have to do is tell it to retry each time it says that. When it is done, simply reboot!

 

The thumbnails were good for about one hour and then kaput they were gone again! :cry

 

I thought I had ruled it out before but it turns out that a program that I am running is doing it. Stardock's WindowBlinds. I have been using this software for years now and have never had this problem so its either a bad update or it was a setting I should've left well alone.