Two questions: Portable device as drive button, and thumbnails

[Michael_GR]

Hi all, longtime user, recently upgraded to 9.22, and I've two questions.

1. Being able to access my phone with Total commander is a huge improvement. However I'm a fan of the button bar and usually have the combo box turned off. Is there a way to see a connected portable device in the drive button bar?

2. A general question: by default, how does TC generate image file thumbnails? Does it use the same mechanism as windows itself or is it generating its own thumbnails?

Thanks and have a great and productive day!

[petermad]

Try this:
1. Open your device in TC's left panel.
2. Click "Configuration" -> "Save settings".
3. Open your wincmd.ini file from TC's right panel.
4. Find the section [left] in your windmd.ini
5. You will se a long line at path= with something like ::{20D04FE1-3AEA-1069-A2D8-08082B30309D}\\\?\usb#vid_0bc4&pid_0c94#sh445wm07505#{6ac25878-a6fa-4145-ba85-f98f491d4f33}
6. Copy that whole path.
7. Make a button in the buttonbar with the command: cd ::{20D04FE1-3AEA-1069-A2D8-08082B30309D}\\\?\usb#vid_0bc4&pid_0c94#sh445wm07505#{6ac25878-a6fa-4145-ba85-f98f491d4f33}

Testet under Windows 7 and 10 with HTC One_M8 smartphone with Android 6.

[petermad]

2. A general question: by default, how does TC generate image file thumbnails? Does it use the same mechanism as windows itself or is it generating its own thumbnails?

The thumbnauls are generated in 4 different ways as configured in "Configuration" -> "Options..." - "Thumbnails" -> "Loading thumbnails".

The 4 options is used in the sequence of the dialog: Lister plugins -> Explorer method -> Irfanview/XnView -> Plain text - the first one that is applicable is used.

But even if the Explorer method is used, TC uses its own cache files (tcthumbs.idb , tcthumbs.db and tcthumbs.frl ), not the database cache generated when using Explorer.

[ghisler(Author)]

It depends - if the Explorer signals that the thumbnail shouldn't be cached, then TC doesn't store it in its own cache.

[Matrix]

Try this:
1. Open your device in TC's left panel.
2. Click "Configuration" -> "Save settings".
3. Open your wincmd.ini file from TC's right panel.
4. Find the section [left] in your windmd.ini
5. You will se a long line at path= with something like ::{20D04FE1-3AEA-1069-A2D8-08082B30309D}\\\?\usb#vid_0bc4&pid_0c94#sh445wm07505#{6ac25878-a6fa-4145-ba85-f98f491d4f33}
6. Copy that whole path.
7. Make a button in the buttonbar with the command: cd ::{20D04FE1-3AEA-1069-A2D8-08082B30309D}\\\?\usb#vid_0bc4&pid_0c94#sh445wm07505#{6ac25878-a6fa-4145-ba85-f98f491d4f33}

Testet under Windows 7 and 10 with HTC One_M8 smartphone with Android 6.

Thank you. This worked perfectly.

[Michael_GR]

Try this:
1. Open your device in TC's left panel.
2. Click "Configuration" -> "Save settings".
3. Open your wincmd.ini file from TC's right panel.
4. Find the section [left] in your windmd.ini
5. You will se a long line at path= with something like ::{20D04FE1-3AEA-1069-A2D8-08082B30309D}\\\?\usb#vid_0bc4&pid_0c94#sh445wm07505#{6ac25878-a6fa-4145-ba85-f98f491d4f33}
6. Copy that whole path.
7. Make a button in the buttonbar with the command: cd ::{20D04FE1-3AEA-1069-A2D8-08082B30309D}\\\?\usb#vid_0bc4&pid_0c94#sh445wm07505#{6ac25878-a6fa-4145-ba85-f98f491d4f33}

Testet under Windows 7 and 10 with HTC One_M8 smartphone with Android 6.

Wonderful, thank you! works perfectly.

[Matrix]

Hello,

At what point is the tcthumbs.idb file becomes too big?

Mine is currently 2.05 GB (2,202,623,624 bytes) in size.

I notice that windows explorer preview loads the thumbnails quicker. Is this just an is what it is situation, or should I reduce the size?

Note, I only have explorer method ticked inside loading thumbnails section in configuration.

I would like to keep the currently saved Thumbnails as it saves time when reviewing photos time and time again in certain folders.

Appreciate the help.

[ghisler(Author)]

tcthumbs.idb contains the actual (PNG-compressed) image data. The tcthumbs.db file is a database containing the file names, sizes, times, and links to the idb.

You could try without the database - modern processors are so fast that loading the thumbnails without caching may actually be faster. Just go to Configuration - Options - Thumbnails, then cut the path to the thumbnail database. I would store it somewhere, so you can put it back in if it's slower.

[Matrix]

Hey Christian,

Yes, this helped. Consider the problem solved and appreciate your time to answer,
'
Kind regards,