I heard about the thumbnail spacing option and like it.
However, it doesn't draw thumbnails until you scroll to them. Thus as you scroll through it is constantly redrawing the screen.
This is annoying.
Is there any to make it draw all of the thumbnails in a folder when you open the folder?
Any to make program draw all thumbnails at once?
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It looks like background processing is not working on my system.
I observed the following.
I have Win 98 SE.
bSantasLittleHelper is 1.
BinMiscOptions is e0 (224)
I closed all applications and verified with Norton System Doctor that my cpu was running at 0 %.
I opened xplorer2 and went to a directory with 219 images in 22 MB.
I refreshed the screen.
I observed no background activity. The cpu utilization remained steady at 0 % with Physical Memory used of 202.0 MB and 110.6 of cache.
I wanted over six minutes.
Nothing changed. The cpu stayed at 0 and the memory used figures did not change.
When I scrolled down, I saw the little image icons replaced as the program redrew the screen with the thumbnails. The cpu utilization was around 50 % when the program drew the pictures.
Is there some trick to getting the background processing to work?
I observed the following.
I have Win 98 SE.
bSantasLittleHelper is 1.
BinMiscOptions is e0 (224)
I closed all applications and verified with Norton System Doctor that my cpu was running at 0 %.
I opened xplorer2 and went to a directory with 219 images in 22 MB.
I refreshed the screen.
I observed no background activity. The cpu utilization remained steady at 0 % with Physical Memory used of 202.0 MB and 110.6 of cache.
I wanted over six minutes.
Nothing changed. The cpu stayed at 0 and the memory used figures did not change.
When I scrolled down, I saw the little image icons replaced as the program redrew the screen with the thumbnails. The cpu utilization was around 50 % when the program drew the pictures.
Is there some trick to getting the background processing to work?
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Having the screen draw the pictures only when you scroll to them is very annoying. It means repeated interruptions every time you hit the page up or down keys to scroll.
Is there any way simply to say draw all the thumbnails whenever you open the directory?
Irfanview works that way. Like xplorer2, Irfanview draws the thumbnails each time and doesn't save them in a database. When you say thumbnails, it immediately draws all the thumbnails in a directory. You have no choice.
(Note: Irfanview is a image viewer/limited editor program, not an explorer program. It is complementary to xplorer2, i.e. it doesn't overlap in functions.)
This process of drawing thumbnails can take a while. On my system, an old 400 Mhz K-6-III, slow but not that slow, when I open the directory mentioned earlier with 219 images occupying 19 MB, it takes approximately 16 seconds to draw all 219 150 x 150 thumbnails. That's an interruption but once done, I can then instantly scroll up and down without interruption.
Is there any way simply to say draw all the thumbnails whenever you open the directory?
Irfanview works that way. Like xplorer2, Irfanview draws the thumbnails each time and doesn't save them in a database. When you say thumbnails, it immediately draws all the thumbnails in a directory. You have no choice.
(Note: Irfanview is a image viewer/limited editor program, not an explorer program. It is complementary to xplorer2, i.e. it doesn't overlap in functions.)
This process of drawing thumbnails can take a while. On my system, an old 400 Mhz K-6-III, slow but not that slow, when I open the directory mentioned earlier with 219 images occupying 19 MB, it takes approximately 16 seconds to draw all 219 150 x 150 thumbnails. That's an interruption but once done, I can then instantly scroll up and down without interruption.
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I tried setting bSantasLittleHelper to 0.
When I did that, the program did not draw the "preliminary icon," or whatever you call the small icon that appears first. It seemed like the program drew the thumbnails more smoothly without any jerkiness. For that, I thought the setting worked slightly better.
I haven't tried anything else to see what downsides may exist on that setting.
However, even with that setting, the program didn't draw the thumbnails until you scrolled down.
I think an option to say draw all thumbnails when opening a directory, as opposed to when scrolling through, with background processing, would be the best facility.
When I did that, the program did not draw the "preliminary icon," or whatever you call the small icon that appears first. It seemed like the program drew the thumbnails more smoothly without any jerkiness. For that, I thought the setting worked slightly better.
I haven't tried anything else to see what downsides may exist on that setting.
However, even with that setting, the program didn't draw the thumbnails until you scrolled down.
I think an option to say draw all thumbnails when opening a directory, as opposed to when scrolling through, with background processing, would be the best facility.
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At the moment, I have four other installed thumbnail programs: Irfanview, Faststone, MyAlbum, and Ixla Explorer. I have had others but uninstalled them. I have kept these four because each does something better than the others.
When viewing a directory of thumbnails, each of the four programs completely draws the entire screen with the thumbnails, as opposed to drawing them when reached by scrolling. I believe that the others did too, although I can't verify that as a fact.
Irfanview uses a background process, and you can scroll thumbnails while it draws them.
MyAlbum is so quick that I don't recall seeing a delay between opening the album and display of the thumbnails
I wouldn't call this write all thumbnails first behavior standard, but it does seem customary among the thumbnail programs that I have used. I think thumbnail users prefer and expect this behavior and would not view it as resource waste.
Speaking for myself, when I view and scroll thumbnails, I have nothing else running on my computer. The wasted resources are the unused cycles immediately after I open the directory and my cpu usage goes to zero.
For the record, faststone is a free for personal use quasi explorer image viewer. It has only one screen, and you can't do cut and paste between directories. I call it quasi because it is missing some keys for keyboard explorer navigation. Otherwise, it is a good program. It uses a thumbnail data base. I think faststone shows that thumbnail data bases are a good idea.
MyAlbum is an album program, meaning you have to set up individual images in it. If you open an image with Irfanview, you can then view the directory. It is good for setting up quick access to most often viewed images and image directories. It is a "sorta" explorer.
Ixla Explorer was one of the first image explorer programs that got most things right. It dates back to Win 95. In Win 98 SE, the program stopped closing properly on my system, and the developer disappeared. The program loads slowly. However, you can cut and paste with multiple thumbnail screens.
Irfanview is, I think, the best overall image viewer/limited editor. However it is not an explorer and you can't do cut and paste with it.
With multiple directory panes, cut and paste, an explorer interface, and the ability to use Irfanview as a default image viewer, xplorer2 fills some voids in the thumbnail space.
When viewing a directory of thumbnails, each of the four programs completely draws the entire screen with the thumbnails, as opposed to drawing them when reached by scrolling. I believe that the others did too, although I can't verify that as a fact.
Irfanview uses a background process, and you can scroll thumbnails while it draws them.
MyAlbum is so quick that I don't recall seeing a delay between opening the album and display of the thumbnails
I wouldn't call this write all thumbnails first behavior standard, but it does seem customary among the thumbnail programs that I have used. I think thumbnail users prefer and expect this behavior and would not view it as resource waste.
Speaking for myself, when I view and scroll thumbnails, I have nothing else running on my computer. The wasted resources are the unused cycles immediately after I open the directory and my cpu usage goes to zero.
For the record, faststone is a free for personal use quasi explorer image viewer. It has only one screen, and you can't do cut and paste between directories. I call it quasi because it is missing some keys for keyboard explorer navigation. Otherwise, it is a good program. It uses a thumbnail data base. I think faststone shows that thumbnail data bases are a good idea.
MyAlbum is an album program, meaning you have to set up individual images in it. If you open an image with Irfanview, you can then view the directory. It is good for setting up quick access to most often viewed images and image directories. It is a "sorta" explorer.
Ixla Explorer was one of the first image explorer programs that got most things right. It dates back to Win 95. In Win 98 SE, the program stopped closing properly on my system, and the developer disappeared. The program loads slowly. However, you can cut and paste with multiple thumbnail screens.
Irfanview is, I think, the best overall image viewer/limited editor. However it is not an explorer and you can't do cut and paste with it.
With multiple directory panes, cut and paste, an explorer interface, and the ability to use Irfanview as a default image viewer, xplorer2 fills some voids in the thumbnail space.