Explorer Cover Flow

[doumer]

this looks very promising, however I failed to install :-(

the installer somehow didn't work for me, errors all the time and when I unpacked the files and rund the install.cmd, it installed it. but whenever i opend the explorer, it crashes immediately after i enabeled coverflow.

anyone managed to install this on vista x86 SP2?

[vemod]

New version available 0.1.0.4.

Features:

Speed optimizations. Various unnecessary image scaling and reloading removed.

Thumbnail extraction in background threads. Extracting thumbnails in the background lets Cover Flow respond while the thumbnail plugins are processing. There is an option to set the maximum number of background threads to more than one, but it should be use with caution since not all plugins are multithreaded by design. On my computer I have a problem with Real Video plugins that will crash Explorer if more than one background thread accesses the plugin at the same time. Anyway, raising the number of threads doesn't always mean things will get faster. Timing the loading speed of a directory with pdf files shows that 2 threads are slightly faster than one, 3 threads about the same time as 2 and with 4 threads it starts to get slower again and the animation starts to get a bit jumpy.

Anti-aliased text. Text is now written with GDI+ before it is put onto a DX-texture.

Goodbye MCI, hello DirectShow! Media files are now played with DirectShow. This hugely expands the number of file formats that can be played. You can now preview DivX, flv and Real Media videos and even DVD-images. Make sure you have the required DS filters especially since the native Mpeg1 filter that plays mp3 files has a problem with certain mp3 formats. FFDShow is highly recommended!

Vista Icons, what? on XP? Well sort of. Exe files that are Vista-ready will have their 256x256 icon shown. Just look at the OpenOffice-exe files. Ico, cur and ani files will also be show in their largest format. Not sure what it will look like on Vista...

Mouse wheel scrolling. Well you know...

Mp3 cover art. There is now an option to show mp3 files with cover art instead of icons. And an option to show cover art while playing mp3 files.

Customizable icons and icon packages. Tired of that darned yellow XP folder icon? Now you can select an icon (png) for each file type with the resolution you want and choose to skip the loading of thumbnails for these types. You can also specify an icon for each single file (overriding the file type). Just turn the icon (with one click) and bring up the Verbs Menu. You should use png files of the same size as the Image Texture Size or smaller since larger images will be scaled down and down scaling is pure waste of cpu...

Icons applied to file types or special folders can be “packed” (or rather moved) into a folder and bundled with a package script. The folder can then be zipped and applied by other users with the Settings app which brings us to:

Rewritten Settings app. With a “Mac-like” UI and full control over the customized icons. And you can have this little menu addition on png files as well:

“One step” installer. It is the same old installer but it is packed in a self-extracting zip for your convenience.

Make sure to completely remove previous versions before installing! Go to Control Panel->Add/Remove programs. Shut down all instances of Explorer before you hit remove!

I know there are some really good graphic designers here. This app really needs a better throbber. A 64x64 animated gif that looks good on both bright and dark backgrounds, maybe with a drop shadow like on the iPhone. Please!

Edited August 28, 2009 by vemod

[BlackFire]

Nice, will test it right now!

[skdj]

Can´t wait to put my hand on it!

ThX!

[danhoven]

hello vemod

thank u so much for great update!! now all my icon in coverflow High quality now..

= vemod im having problem in extension like my .zip .rar .cab it show generic folder only? even i assigned them to all winrar.

tnx again!

Edited August 26, 2009 by cns0813h

[edgordil]

Thanks a lot vemod.

It works perfectly in my laptop HP pavilion, vista sp1.

[ahmadus]

You're The man VEMOD

[vemod]

So, it seems to be working, that's nice.

FreeStyler toolbar aka "Mac Finder Navigation Toolbar for Windows" is right here along with some skins. Freestyler has a nasty thing with locking the Toolbar layout so you might need the KillLayout.reg file that comes with Cover Flow if it starts to make trouble. This way you can start over with a fresh layout. You shouldn't run the reg files from FreeStyler or the KillLayout file from Explorer but rather from the Desktop while Explorer is closed.

I think problems with the installer can be avoided by installing the VB-runtimes first.

I found a small memory leak in 0.1.0.4

Edit: and fixed the zip/generic folder problem

The DL is updated.

(If you have already installed 0.1.0.4 you can just replace the existing ExplorerCoverFlow.dll with the new one.)

Edited August 26, 2009 by vemod

[danhoven]

tnx vemod i already change my explorerecoverflow.dll ..its just fine now.. thank alot buddy :lol:

keep on updating!.. ur marvelous!

[magnus87]

Excelent Update!!!

Some sugestion (if you can ):

-Esc for exit fullscreen

-CoverFlow dont use all weight of the windows when its have Folder Tree or Findexer or Common Folder, etc

-When the user clicks some icon the CF do auto scroll

[vmart3]

hey great program, a few questions

1. Is there any way to make it work with the mac finder navigation tool bar so you dont have to right click and select coverflow, you just click the icon and then it goes into coverflow

2. A bit off topic but what windowblinds skin are you using? if its not windowblinds which program and which skin because it looks really good.

Edited September 3, 2009 by vmart3

[edgordil]

I second the requests from magnus87 and vmart!

[Kittierocker]

You can install it on XP SP 2 as well as Win 2000, ME, 98 or whatever as long as you have DirectX. The Visual Basic installer however is a blast from the past when you had to reboot everytime it touched a system file. To avoid that, install the Visual Basic Runtime files before you install the cover flow. Download the VB6 runtime files here: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details...17-f673077ffb3c

DirectX 9.0c can be downloaded here: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details...6a-9b6652cd92a3

hi i installed both of these and i still get an error message saying i dont have the proper files installed.....

then i went over and installed it on my small netbook and it worked there and i transfered the files from coverflow folder to my main desktop and ran the program and it worked, but i dont get the right click on the menu pop ups in explorer but yea..... i dunno y the installer didnt start :/

Edited September 5, 2009 by Kittierocker

[vemod]

@Kittieocker: I helped a friend with installing a fresh XP no SPs on a blank HD. Just for fun I also installed Cover Flow and it worked just out of the box. Maybe you replaced some essential system files with Flyakite or whatever... The menu items for pngs can be switched on and off with the settings app.

@magnus: I can add esc but for now you can use F10 to close full screen.

I don't see processor load going up to 100% on my computer, if that's what you mean. If your video memory is very limited you might try to decrease the backbuffer and texture sizes.

I can't find any event from the explorer interface that raises when you single click an icon. If you know of any way to track that, please let me know. The other way around, I can't find a way to just select a file in the explorer pane without opening or running it. Suggestions welcome...

@vmart: I have already posted in the mac finder navigation bar thread with a request. I hope to get an answer soon as this would make the Cover Flow much more usable.

@Everybody: Microsoft has removed thumbnail preview of html documents after XP SP1. You can get it back along with thumbnails of text documents and a lot of other file types: http://www.winmatrix.com/forums/index.php?...3rd-party-file/

Try "Thumbnail extensions" and "Thumbnail restore" and look around for more if you like.

If you want to try something cool, you can have 128x128 icons in XP by adding a vista icon package (i.e. the "Leo Vista" package available at deviantart) with icon packager and then run this reg file:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop\WindowMetrics]
"IconSpacing"="-1200"
"IconVerticalspacing"="-1200"
"Shell Icon BPP"="32"
"Shell Icon Size"="128"

Your desktop will probably look the same when it has finished loading. Thumbnail view in explorer will have quite big icons. The start menu will be totally screwed up so you might want to replace it with a 3rd party one or switch to classic start meny. Most important you will now have hi-res default icons in Cover Flow...

[magnus87]

I wanted to say width not weight xD. Im sorry LOL

the image atached is my suggestion xD

[jockep]

This was working for me but now it doesn't show up anymore, it's in the toolbar list but when activating all i get is a small grey toolbar below, any idea how to fix? thanks

[karthikmuralizo6]

where is the link for download ,i downloaded frm the sky drive and installed it, its coming not properly!!!

[mps69]

where is the link for download ,i downloaded frm the sky drive and installed it, its coming not properly!!!

The download link is in the first post, and it's working for me.

you might want to explain further, "it's coming not properly" a little further, like what's happening, what OS your using. We're good here but not that good.

Also did you follow all the install instructions, as detailed in the first post too.

[setyosw]

coverflow is suitable installed in vista but some time appear warning about runtime, its make explorer not responding.

so please how to solve it?

and how to make coverflow item automatically set focus when selecting item in explorer like coverflow in itunes?

thx b4..

[Calvin360]

the download link is not working

[xMP44x]

It's not working for me.

When I install it, everything seems fine. However, it pops up that I have some files that are newer than the installer. I choose to keep my files, as they're newer. So, the install completes fine, but an error pops up. The installer cannot do something with the 'quartz.dll' file. I have no idea what this is, but I definitely would like this program to work for me. It's a great idea, and I hope I can get it working.

[soulcube]

very thnx. very very nice program.I have a question. I don't understand software programing. can you sowtware programing we can assign a picture for each folder separately wonder. sample pictures :

my terminator tv series folder cover:

my music folder cover:

my kngiht rider 2008 folder:

[aquawelt]

coverflow is suitable installed in vista but some time appear warning about runtime, its make explorer not responding.

so please how to solve it?

and how to make coverflow item automatically set focus when selecting item in explorer like coverflow in itunes?

thx b4..

I think maybe you are running Mac Finder Bar as well ? , this is the app that can give those runtime error messages , just de register any toolbar plugins you have and then re register them, they can and do work together on Vista.

This shot shows Coverflow, QtTabBar and Mac Finder Bar working together without error.

Edited November 15, 2009 by aquawelt

[bbydino05]

hello, haha being new at this modding stuff i wanted to know how to activate it. i installed it but where do i go now?

[joelmontgomery1]

This runs really slow on my system. And i mean it runs REALLY slow.

Ive got:

Nvidia GeForce 8600GT 512mb

2gb ram

Intel Core 2 Duo 2.2ghz

298gb hard disk (70gb available)

And a hat

Should Cover Flow be running so slow on my system? is there anyway to speed it up?

Also where can i get that bar in explorer? will it work in vista? where can i get a skin? is elvis really dead? Is it poosible to integrate cover flow with the bar?

Edit: Possible

Edit: Can someone give me a link to a good QTTab Bar OS X Skin??? Apart from that ive got a near perfect finder clone. FindeXer, WindowsBlinds Skin, QTTab bar skin for the tabs but not the buttons.

Please dont post Tiger/Panther etc skins i want a Snow Leopard/Leopard skin

Edited December 10, 2009 by Vistapple