I want to be able to preview jpegs on the desktop in Windows XP
June 1, 2007 6:26 AM   Subscribe

One thing I really like about OSX is the fact that when you have a jpeg on the desktop, you get a thumbnail preview. I run Windows XP, and I simply don't have the money for a new computer, let alone a Mac, though. Is there a program out there that will let me see thumbnail previews of jpegs on my desktop?

I've tried DesktopX from stardock and while it did that, and was an interesting program, it ranged from kind of buggy to truly awful. So that's one option down.
Any thoughts for me?
posted by jamietie to Computers & Internet (7 answers total) 2 users marked this as a favorite
 
er, my OSX machine doesn't show previews of JPGs on the desktop...how do you do that?
posted by popechunk at 6:40 AM on June 1, 2007


popechunk: It depends on what program you saved the picture with. Photoshop does it, for example, while Grab (Apple's screenshot utility) doesn't. If you want to add thumbnail previews to your photos, try Pinki.

jamietie, I don't know of anything similar Windows software off the top of my head, but I'll keep looking.
posted by danb at 6:55 AM on June 1, 2007


This probably won't help you, but it's worth noting that Windows Vista does this automatically.
posted by awesomebrad at 7:05 AM on June 1, 2007


Response by poster: I didn't realize vista did that.
I might consider an upgrade, I think my parents have an upgrade coupon
posted by jamietie at 7:07 AM on June 1, 2007


The OS X Finder will generate previews on-the-fly for any image without embedded thumbnails. There's no need to add thumbnails to your files.

There's a checkbox in View Options (Finder: View menu: Show View Options, or command-j). The floating options widow shows the settings for whichever Finder window is selected (click on the desktop if you want to select that folder).
posted by D.C. at 9:38 AM on June 1, 2007 [1 favorite]


This isn't what you were looking for but why not just open an Explorer window of the Desktop and set it to Thumbnail View?
posted by junesix at 10:17 AM on June 1, 2007


Yes, WinXP does this in Windows Explorer. You can set the folder option to Thumbnail View, but if the folder is filled with JPEGs, it will probably default to that anyway.
posted by Artifice_Eternity at 10:30 AM on June 1, 2007


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