Fantastic Program - 1 question on showing icons

PaulXNView · Post by **PaulXNView** » Wed Mar 22, 2006 7:10 pm

What a wonderful all-in-one viewer/editor - remarkable. Just have one question - file types are showing up fine - but I'm used to having icons show as small pictures, say when looking at a folder full of icons. What I'm getting is the default logo for XNView; any way to show the actual icon AS an icon next to file?

I'm pretty sure I haven't clicked the correct box somewhere - but would like to see the actual image next to the file.

Cheers and many thanks to the developer and the forum contributors here - I've learned a lot. / p

PaulXNView · Post by **PaulXNView** » Wed Mar 22, 2006 7:23 pm

OK - found partial solution, and that is to simply uncheck "ico" as associated file type; Windows then takes over and displays the icon.

To edit I'll just right click & open in XNView. It would be nice however, to have XNView as default opener AND show the "ico" image next to file. Any additional help would be appreciated!

I'll probably go ahead and register here instead of posting as guest
Thanks / p

Dreamer · Post by **Dreamer** » Wed Mar 22, 2006 11:37 pm

Try this: http://newsgroup.xnview.com/viewtopic.php?t=3452

PaulXNView · Post by **PaulXNView** » Thu Mar 23, 2006 12:16 am

Thank you. Yes, that's pretty much what I did - after uninstalling IrfanView (God Bless that developer, but XNView is just superior in all the ways I used to use I.V.) - I tried setting "all associations" to XNView but got a warning that this can cause problems - so only picked "most used" including .ico. Sure enough the XN logo appears next to .ico's, but not the actual picture. So the association is indeed "set," but doesn't show image.

I simply reversed procedure for .ico files and they're showing up now. All I have to do is right click and "send to" or simply click on thumbnail (what a cool concept THAT IS w/XN!!) - and I'm fine.

I realized just before you posted that helpful thread/hint, that using Windows file association method wouldn't work, although something curious did happen: the "jpg" and "bmp" icons for XNView werent' appearing, until I went into Windows file associations and although already marked for "XNV," cleared and "restored to default." After restarting, I now have the cool jpg/bmp differentiation in logos.

Thanks for the help and although I'm "stuck with" using the default Windows icon opener, I still have all the functionality of editing icons in XNView (I've never seen anything easier, even dedicated icon editors!) - so I'm good.

Thanks again. Might try associating to XN one more time and restarting, but if it doesn't "take," I'm fine with the way it is. This is a simply marvelous renamer/editor/viewer, and if it had 2 more features I'd actually drop GIMP and use ONLY XN. Couldn't be happier!!

Post by **XnTriq** » Sun Apr 16, 2006 1:45 pm

Warning: Modify the registry at your own risk!
For information about how to back up, restore, and edit the Windows registry, view Microsoft Knowledge Base Article #256986.

Make sure the checkbox for .ico files (Tools » Options... » Associations) is deactivated.
Right-click the Windows desktop.
Click New, and then click Text Document.
Type icofile.reg, press ENTER, and then click Yes to confirm the change to the file name.
Right-click the icofile.reg file, and then click Edit.

In the Notepad window, copy the following data into the icofile.reg file:

Code: Select all

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FileExts\.ico]
"Application"=-

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Classes\.ico]
@="icofile"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Classes\icofile]
@="Icon"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Classes\icofile\DefaultIcon]
@="%1"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Classes\icofile\shell]

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Classes\icofile\shell\open]

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Classes\icofile\shell\open\command]
@="\"C:\\Program Files\\XnView\\xnview.exe\" \"%1\""

Important: Depending on your installation, you may have to adjust the path of xnview.exe.
Note that the path must include double backslash characters (\\) when you edit the file for use with Windows 2000.

In the Notepad window, click File, and then click Exit. Click Yes to save changes.
Double-click the icofile.reg file, and then click Yes to add the information to the registry.

After completing this procedure, icon files should be associated with XnView and display as intended.

If you want to open files in XnView that are associated with a different program, there's a slightly more convenient way to achieve this than thru SendTo: Just click on the thumbnail in the XnView Shell Extension.

Related freeware tools:

Frank Worsley's File Type Manager
Alex Yakovlev's Fast Explorer 2006