Category: Windows

A collection of tweaks for how Windows XP handles thumbnails.

Turn off filenames in thumbnail view

Open the folder, or switch to thumbnail view, while holding down the Shift key.

Change thumbnail size

By default, thumbnails are 96×96 pixels in size. You can change this value for the current user or all users. Current user: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer

All users: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer

Go to either key, select Explorer, then create a DWORD value called ThumbnailSize. Double-click it, select Decimal in

the Base section, and enter a value between 32 and 256. Restart Windows Explorer.

Disable thumbnail caching (thumbs.db)

When you switch to thumbnail view, Windows creates hidden thumbs.db files (thumbnail cache) to speed up access to the thumbnails. This is nice but these files also contain the thumbnails of deleted pictures. You can delete the files, but Windows will recreate them as soon as you go back into the folders. You can, however, tell Windows not to cache thumbnails. Control Panel > Folder Options On the View tab, check Do not cache thumbnails. You will have to delete the thumbs.db files that already exist (Use the Search feature).

I had wanted to provide an option to connect to lower bit rate streams on my webcasts that used Multiple Bit Rates (MBR). After a bit of searching I found my answer.

mms://server.ip/stream?WMContentBitrate=300000

The WMContentBitrate modifier sets the maximum bit rate that can be streamed from a source, in bits per second. So you can simply set the number to be a bit higher then the stream your targeting and direct users where you want them.

There are many more modifiers that can be used with Windows Media Player. For a brief overview check out this article from Microsoft on additional query strings. For a more in depth discussion try Using URL Modifiers.