XNView Shell Extension Not Working

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gccollins
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XNView Shell Extension Not Working

Post by gccollins »

My system is running Windows 8.1 Update 1 64-bit. I have installed XNView MP v.078 and XNView Shell Extension v3.5.1. First I tried the 64-versions, but then removed them and installed the 32-bit versions.

In both cases XNView MP works fine, but Shell Extension does not appear to be running. There are no associated right-click menu items in Windows Explorer, and the preview pane is blank for file types like EPS, XCF and PDF.

What am I missing?

Thanks
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xnview
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Re: XNView Shell Extension Not Working

Post by xnview »

you need the XnShellExt 64bits
Pierre.
gccollins
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Re: XNView Shell Extension Not Working

Post by gccollins »

Thanks Pierre. I have just the 64 bit versions of XNView and XNShell installed now. It is working, and perhaps it was all along and I just did not realize it, and perhaps I was expecting too much.

I was hoping that XNShell would allow previews and thumbnails in Windows Explorer for PDF, EPS, and XCF files, but it does not. When right-clicking PDF and EPS files, XNShell didn't even show up in the menu, which is why I thought it wasn't working. Then I happened to right-click on a JPG and I saw that XNShell was there, and had configurable options... (please excuse me for not reading the documentation, but I searched and honestly could not find anything concise).

I disabled the default "No thumbnail for EPS/PDF", which allowed XNShell to be displayed when right-clicking EPS files (but still not PDF files). And when selecting the XNShell menu option on EPS files, I now see a thumbnail of the image. Same for XCF files. But neither EPS or XCF files have a thumbnail or preview available when viewed directly in the Windows Explorer file listing. And same still for PDF's.

I also disabled the option for "Use embedded thumbnail", but see no change in behavior.

Sorry, the mixed behavior was confusing to me. I was expecting XNShell to provide thumbnails/previews for all file types supported by XNView. Are there other settings I need to use, or is this just beyond the scope of the program?
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xnview
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Re: XNView Shell Extension Not Working

Post by xnview »

To allow previews in explorer, you need to check SageThumbs
Pierre.
gccollins
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Re: XNView Shell Extension Not Working

Post by gccollins »

Thanks again. SageThumbs indeed provides XCF and EPS thumbs and previews in Explorer. But not PDF, even though I enabled PDF in the SageThumb options. Oh well, maybe I can find some other PDF handler.

I am really liking all this functionality of XN and Sage! Now my concern becomes feature overlap and best combination of settings. That's a long thread you linked, but I will look there for guidance.
cday
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Re: XNView Shell Extension Not Working

Post by cday »

gccollins wrote:SageThumbs indeed provides XCF and EPS thumbs and previews in Explorer. But not PDF, even though I enabled PDF in the SageThumb options. Oh well, maybe I can find some other PDF handler.
Do you have Ghostscript installed, x64 for x64 software, which is required to open PDF (and some other) file types in XnView software, it looks as if it is also required to open PDFs in SageThumbs...

If not, in XnView MP browser you will need to set a suitable DPI value in File > Format settings...
gccollins
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Re: XNView Shell Extension Not Working

Post by gccollins »

Yes, I've had GPL Ghostscript 9.14 32-bit installed for some time. I just replaced it with v9.18 64-bit, but no change in behavior.

I notice that XNView is able to provide a thumbnail for PDF's, no problem. It's just not happening in Explorer. XNView can't actually open the PDF, though (but that's OK by me).

FWIW, I'm not able to find any such file format DPI settings in XNView .078, under Tools, Options or elsewhere.

Thank you.
cday
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Re: XNView Shell Extension Not Working

Post by cday »

gccollins wrote:Yes, I've had GPL Ghostscript 9.14 32-bit installed for some time. I just replaced it with v9.18 64-bit, but no change in behavior.
You need 32-bit for 32-bit software (XnView Classic and XnView MP 32-bit) and 64-bit for 64-bit software (XnView MP 64-bit), and can have both installed at the same time...
gccollins wrote:... XNView [MP] can't actually open the PDF, though ...
It should, if you have the correct version of Ghostscript installed, although it seems to be less tolerant of slightly malformed files than other PDF viewing software, and no other issue such as Unicode characters in file names (for XnView Classic) ...
gccollins wrote:FWIW, I'm not able to find any such file format DPI settings in XNView .078, under Tools, Options or elsewhere.
If you're using XnView MP that setting [ File > Format settings...] is only in the viewer, not in the file browser, my mistake in my previous post...
gccollins
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Re: XNView Shell Extension Not Working

Post by gccollins »

Thank you, Cday. I found the format options.

The 32/64 bit thing has always been confusing. It seems sometime you're only supposed to have one version of something installed, sometimes both. Documentation is not always clear.

What I've most recently had related to this thread is ONLY 64-bit versions of Ghostscript, XNView, XNShell and SageThumbs. All 32 bit versions of these programs had been removed. On your advice, I just installed latest version 32-bit Ghostscript alongside the 64-bit version, and voila! XNView can now open the PDF in its viewer, in addition to displaying a thumbnail in its browser! It seems the fix was in bumping 32-bit Ghostscript from v9.14 to v9.18.

This is a bit puzzling since XNView is the 64-bit version. I suppose it tells us that somewhere in XNView is a call to some other underlying 32-bit code???

Anyway, while making some progress, I still don't see thumbs of PDF's in Windows Explorer.
cday
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Re: XNView Shell Extension Not Working

Post by cday »

gccollins wrote:The 32/64 bit thing has always been confusing. It seems sometime you're only supposed to have one version of something installed, sometimes both. Documentation is not always clear.

What I've most recently had related to this thread is ONLY 64-bit versions of Ghostscript, XNView, XNShell and SageThumbs. All 32 bit versions of these programs had been removed. On your advice, I just installed latest version 32-bit Ghostscript alongside the 64-bit version, and voila! XNView can now open the PDF in its viewer, in addition to displaying a thumbnail in its browser!
My understanding is that 64-bit Windows requires 64-bit XnShell, and presumably also requires 64-bit SageThumbs, but that for 64-bit Windows, 32-bit versions of general applications require 32-bit Ghostscript, and 64-bit versions of general applications require 64-bit Ghostscript, and that both versions can be installed at the same time...
gccollins wrote:It seems the fix was in bumping 32-bit Ghostscript from v9.14 to v9.18. This is a bit puzzling since XNView is the 64-bit version. I suppose it tells us that somewhere in XNView is a call to some other underlying 32-bit code???
I don't think so...
gccollins wrote:Anyway, while making some progress, I still don't see thumbs of PDF's in Windows Explorer.
I'm sorry but I don't have any ideas about that...
gccollins
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Re: XNView Shell Extension Not Working

Post by gccollins »

OK, problem with Windows Explorer not displaying thumbs or previews is solved!

I had recently changed my PDF editor from Nitro to Foxit PhatomPDF, and removed Nitro from my system. Apparently there were still some Nitro remnants in the way. Some toggling of settings in Foxit forced an override, and now Foxit is providing the Explorer thumbs and previews for PDF's.

I have therefore returned XNShell and SageThumbs to their defaults of NOT handling PDF's. They are doing their other jobs nicely. It seems I need them both, despite overlap in some areas.

Thanks to all for the help.
uzi
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Re: XNView Shell Extension Not Working

Post by uzi »

Hello!

Sorry to bump on old thread, but it describe my issues

If i have Windows 10 64bit, why is XnShellEx64 not bundled in XnView Full?

32bit and 64bit plugins and addons should be together in XnView Full, to not confuse users.

Also there is some kind of issue, with check and uncheck options in system integration, you can not uncheck everything, if you do
some options are still checked.

Regards!
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xnview
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Re: XNView Shell Extension Not Working

Post by xnview »

uzi wrote: Sorry to bump on old thread, but it describe my issues

If i have Windows 10 64bit, why is XnShellEx64 not bundled in XnView Full?
XnView MP?
Pierre.
uzi
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Re: XNView Shell Extension Not Working

Post by uzi »

xnview, it is similar post, did not want to open new post.

why isnt xnshell64 integrated by default in xn view?

regards!
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xnview
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Re: XNView Shell Extension Not Working

Post by xnview »

uzi wrote:xnview, it is similar post, did not want to open new post.

why isnt xnshell64 integrated by default in xn view?
XnView is 32bits app, so XnShellEx 32bits is in the package
Pierre.
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