This machine is using Directory Opus 9.5.5.0 on an XP system. Recently I upgraded Firefox from 3.6 to 4.0, and now DO no longer displays HTML or HTM thumbnails in thumbnail view, just the Firefox logo, although the upgrade was installed to the same program folder. I also have a similar loss of thumbnail display with PDF files. Is there something I need to reset in DO, or do I have a deeper problem?
Tony
Same thing in Explorer?
Thanks for your reply leo.
I had installed Firefox 4.0 on another XP Pro machine, and the thumbnails work fine on that machine, so it must be a problem on the first machine, not because of a conflict with OP and Firefox 4.0.
Are both machines up-to-date with Windows and IE updates?
I have a feeling HTML thumbnails got removed in newer versions of Windows/IE but I'm not sure if that affected XP. (I'm not entirely sure at all, but I found some threads that seem to confirm it never worked on Vista machines at least.)
Until a couple of days ago, thumbnails of both HTML/HTM and PDF files displayed fine. Something either has become corrupted or switched off, but I don't know where to troubleshoot. This machine is a desktop. The other, which has no problem, is an old laptop. The two machines are kept current with both system and program updates as they become available, as well as data files such as bookmarks and e-mail folders kept in sync. Both are running XP Pro and the same versions of OP and Firefox. The old laptop has no problem displaying these thumbnails.
I had a similar thumbnail problem some years back with other file types, and that problem was resolved. With this latest problem, I don't know if there something I need to reset in OP on the desktop machine, or if something needs to be reset or has become corrupted in the system (Registry, Windows Explorer?).
With the PDF thumbnails, re-installing (or repairing) whatever was generating them (e.g. Adobe Reader) usually fixes the problem.
Not sure about reinstalling IE, though. Maybe try making it the default web browser to see if that resets the filetypes and gets thumbnails back, then tell Firefox (or whatever you prefer) to take over again and see if things still work.
Thanks leo. I uninstalled acrobat reader 3.6.1 and installed Acrobat Reader 10.0.1. That brought back PDF thumbnails, as you suggested.
However, I have not been able to bring back HTML/HTM thumbnails. When I used Windows Explorer instead of OP to view thumbnails, it, too, did not create images for HTML/HTM files. Doing so did, however, generate a thumbs.db database file, which Explorer creates for thumbnails, and which I subsequently deleted.
Perhaps I have a corrupt OP viewer plugin?
You know Adobe Reader is always full of actively exploited security flaws and it's best to keep it up-to-date if you have it installed? 
Opus (nor any Opus plugins) does not generate HTML thumbnails; they are generated by the Windows shell (or a shell extension), if anything. Get them working in Explorer and they should work in Opus as well. The problem you've got isn't really to do with Opus, unless Opus is the only place the thumbnails aren't working.
Thanks leo. I mistyped the version of Acrobat that I updated from. It was 9.3.1 to 10.0.1. I do keep it up to date, not just for security reasons, but for feature improvements, as well. My typing skills,on the other hand, have not been updated in some time.
I didn't understand that. Thanks. Last night I found a posting in the DOpus archives that dealt with a Registry hack for XP. I want to see what my Registry has with relation to the entires before I alter it, but it may resolve my problem. The post is titled Preview of local HTM files in Thumbs View? and was begun on May 1, 2008. You made a couple of comments within it. The hack of interest came further down in the thread.
[quote]by Alan » 02 May 2008, 05:24
This .reg file was all that I needed after enabling shell image extraction:
Code: Select all
REGEDIT4
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\SystemFileAssociations\.html\shellex\{BB2E617C-0920-11d1-9A0B-00C04FC2D6C1}]
@="{EAB841A0-9550-11cf-8C16-00805F1408F3}"
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\SystemFileAssociations\.htm\shellex\{BB2E617C-0920-11d1-9A0B-00C04FC2D6C1}]
@="{EAB841A0-9550-11cf-8C16-00805F1408F3}"
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\SystemFileAssociations\.url\shellex\{BB2E617C-0920-11d1-9A0B-00C04FC2D6C1}]
@="{EAB841A0-9550-11cf-8C16-00805F1408F3}"
Works with either IE or Firefox being the default browser.
PS: I got it from this forum [/quote]
Alan didn't give a reference of where he found the Registry hack in the forums, but it sounds hopeful. I want to see what BB2E617C-0920-11d1-9A0B-00C04FC2D6C1 refers to before I insert the values.
I could not find the option to enable shell image extraction. Again from an older 2006 post I found [quote]Make sure that the Prefs->Listers->Thumbnails->Use shell image extraction for formats Opus does not understand option is enabled.[/quote] Perhaps that option no longer applies.
I'm not sure about the "Use shell image extraction" off the top of my head, but don't worry about that for now.
With anything to do with shell thumbnail generation you are better off getting things working in Explorer and only then worrying about Opus; otherwise you may be trying to solve two separate problems at once.
Being cautious when it comes to modifying Windows registries, I Googled the keys quoted from Alan's post above and found many entries. Two were typical:
Restoring lost thumbnails http://en.kioskea.net/faq/1294-restoring-lost-thumbnails Last update on February 6, 2010
Thumbnails http://www.windowskb.com/Uwe/Forum.aspx/windowsxp/211292/Thumbnails Thread begun 08-17-2006
Both dealt with displaying thumbnails for GIFs and JPEGs, rather than HTMLs and HTMs, in Windows Explorer, which made sense. I had already searched through the Registry on this machine and found that it contained HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SOFTWARE \ Classes . Jpg \ ShellEx \ (BB2E617C-0920-11d1-9A0B-00C04FC2D6C1) with a Value of (7376D660-C583-11d0-A3A5-00C04FD706EC as well keys in the same Registry section with the same values for jpeg. gif, tiff, tif, etc — all except for HTML, HTM, and URL. Those keys were set to default (or null value). So I modified the HTML, HTM, and URL keys to contain the same values.
I then opened DOpus to a folder with saved Web pages and clicked on thumbnail view, and all of the HTML and HTM files displayed thumbnails beautifully. I don't know what altered the Registry to set those keys to default values, but now I know how to reset them to display thumbnails if I lose thumbnails for them again.
Thanks for your help in ruling out the problem being with DOpus and directing me towards reinstalling Adobe Acrobat and finding the root problem in Windows Explorer thumbnail display. It's great to have those thumbnails back again.
Thumbnails are working well (with the proviso that Word documents need to be saved-as with thumbnail, general setting) - except for html documents, which I save with an add-in from Firefox (default browser). Only the Firefox icon appears. Coming back after some time to an issue that, from this thread, had apparently been solved for earlier versions of everything. Currently Windows Explorer doesn't show html thumbnails either, and it's not clear what other elements of the above advice might apply. Is a plugin or the like needed for html thumbnails in DO 12?
Thanks.
There's no Opus-specific plugin for HTML thumbnails.
If something installs a thumbnailer which works in File Explorer, it should also work in Opus, so focus on getting HTML thumbnails working in Explorer first.
I'm not sure anything still installs one though. It may be a thing of the past due to security issues or too many HTML files needing to run Javascript to render properly or something. But maybe.something still.does. If so, it should work in Opus if it works in Explorer.
Thanks very much. I will look further into Explorer HTML thumbnails, but understand about the potential security and Javascript issues. Any additional suggestions are welcome.