Changing the Resolution of Thumbnails in Windows Explorer

You can use Windows Explorer to display thumbnails of images in any folder, by choosing View--Thumbnails. By default, those thumbnails are 96 pixels and of a relatively high quality and resolution. But you want to change the size or resolution of the thumbnails, to make them larger so that they're easier to view, or to make them smaller and a lower resolution, because when you have large, high-quality thumbnails, you require more RAM to display them all.

Recipe 5.15. Changing the Resolution of Thumbnails in Windows Explorer
Problem
You can use Windows Explorer to display thumbnails of images in any folder, by choosing View Thumbnails. By default, those thumbnails are 96 pixels and of a relatively high quality and resolution. But you want to change the size or resolution of the thumbnails, to make them larger so that they're easier to view, or to make them smaller and a lower resolution, because when you have large, high-quality thumbnails, you require more RAM to display them all.


Using the Registry

1. Open the Registry Editor (Start-Run-Regedit)and go to HKEY CURRENT USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Exp lorer.

2. Create a new DWORD value called ThumbnailSize.

3. When you edit the value data, choose Hexadecimal as the base.

4. In the value data box, enter a number between 32 and 96. The larger the number, the higher the resolution, and the higher the quality of the thumbnails.

5. Exit the Registry Editor. The resolution of the thumbnails will change without your having to reboot.


Note:Be careful before making your thumbnails larger, because doing so can slow down browsing through your system using Windows Explorer. Also, not all systems will allow you to display thumbnails larger than 96 pixels, so it may not work on yours. However, you should be able to make them smaller on any system.