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WinXP .mov thumbnails (27) Thursday, Mar 13, 2008 7:46 am

My Panasonic digital camera records movies in .mov format.  I don't know why, and I can't change it.  The problem is that Windows XP doesn't show thumbnails for .mov files, which is an issue when I want to look through my pictures and videos with the whole "View → Thumbnails" option selected.  I searched the internet for a solution several months ago and didn't find anything.  I just searched again this morning and found a pretty simple solution, though I'm surprised at how relatively obscure it is and how hard it was to find.  Here's what you need to do: 

  1. Download QuickThumb.dll from here.
  2. Copy to C:\Windows\System32.
  3. Go to Start → Run and type regsvr32 QuickThumb.dll.
  4. If there's an error, download msvcr70.dll from here and repeat steps 2 and 3.
  5. Go to a directory with .mov files, switch to thumbnail display, and possibly press F5 to refresh.

I can't believe I didn't discover this sooner.  That really annoys me.  And it annoys me that the internet wasn't much help for a while. 

(I'm hosting all necessary files here.)

yoyo Friday, Jun 27, 2008 9:25 pm

The .txt you include is a bit more accurate. I believe both files need to be places in c:\windows\system32 and then the command you run is regsvr32 QuickThumb.dll; WITHOUT '/u' (which i think is the switch to UNregister..)
Thanks a lot for putting this together. Very handy :)

Dave Wednesday, Jul 2, 2008 2:02 pm

Hmm, you're probably right.  I changed it in the post above.  Thanks.

John Friday, Sep 19, 2008 10:10 am

How cool is this!
Struggled without for years.
Makes life so much easier!
THANK YOU VERY MUCH!

Nathan Tuesday, Oct 7, 2008 2:13 pm

I just wanted you to know that you probably just saved me a freelance video editing job... I had been struggling with this for days and was almost ready to give up. Thank you so much!

Dave Tuesday, Oct 7, 2008 2:31 pm

Awesome!  Glad my little discoveries are actually helping people.

Shaun Saturday, Oct 25, 2008 3:00 pm

Fantastic. Thank you.
One problem though: when using the Search function in Explorer (with View set to Thumbnail) Explorer crashes just as the last thumbnail is displayed. (Windows XP)

Dave Monday, Oct 27, 2008 10:26 pm

Hmm that's a shame.  I should've said at the beginning that I can't guarantee it won't make your computer blow up.

anticyclope Tuesday, Nov 18, 2008 2:16 am

For video files you can use Thumbnailer from CapTrue. It is a WMP plugin, and when you using it you can assign ANY frame of your video as a thumbnail. Works with .mov and .mkv either.
http://www.captrue.com/thumbnailer.html

Matias Saturday, Dec 13, 2008 2:47 pm

Thanks!!!!!!!!     por fin encontré la solución a mi problema...!!!!
GRACIaS!!!!
problema para ver vistas miniatura en el explorador de windows xp, se ralentiza, video .mov

muhammed Friday, Jan 9, 2009 1:32 am

thanks for sharing such great idea i was suffering for decades  !

Ron Saturday, Jan 17, 2009 9:09 pm

Thank you for this

Matthew Thursday, Jan 29, 2009 2:26 pm

Thanks so much! I have wanted to continue editing home video clips of my children, and with my new Casio camera/video camera only producing .MOV files, I was a bit lost on how to continue without the painstaking task of viewing each clip "blindly" to find the right ones. This worked! You've saved me hours...and nerves!! ;-)

Shawn Thursday, Jan 29, 2009 3:55 pm

I'm getting an Explorer error in quickthumb.dll everytime I attempt to set the view mode to thumbnails in explorer. I put the files in windows/system.. how can I unregister quickthumb.dll? This is annoying...

Dave Thursday, Jan 29, 2009 3:59 pm

I believe you unregister with regsvr32 /u QuickThumb.dll.

Nigel Sunday, Mar 8, 2009 10:15 am

Brilliant, thanks.
I have been relying on seeing the thumbnails through Google's Picasa but this is better.

panojack Friday, Mar 13, 2009 1:01 pm

Not working. Both QuickThumb.dll and RealThumb.dll crash my WinXPSP2 :((

bubu Monday, Apr 27, 2009 11:41 am

Thank you!
It's really useful for my animations. Thanks.

Jackie Monday, Jun 22, 2009 1:09 pm

says I cannot open the .dll file.  What am I doing wrong?

Dave Monday, Jun 22, 2009 2:10 pm

You're trying to open the DLL file.  Don't.  Follow the directions.

Deano Sunday, Jun 28, 2009 10:00 am

Brilliant, had trouble installing in Vista had to turn off UAC to get the dll to register, you may want to add that to the instructions

florex78 Saturday, Jul 4, 2009 3:39 pm

Thanks man .... this really helps me a lot . Again ... many thanks for this post .

Zane Wednesday, Jul 29, 2009 1:47 pm

I found this dll yesterday and tried and it crashed stating "the instruction at "0x01e827de" refrenced at "0x00000020".  The memory could not be "read"." with different addresses every time.  It seems to crash when it tries to paint the thumbnails.  I noticed when I copied MSVCR70.dll there is one already there that is 336kb (as opposed to the one you provide which is 300kb).  First I copied both files to system 32, registered quickthumb.dll then tested with a crash.  Then I tried with the origional 336kb MSVCR70.dll, unregistered and registered quickthumb.dll with a crash.

I am running SP3.

I appreciate any help getting this to work.  I looked into the UAC thing but that looks like a vista issue.

Dave Wednesday, Jul 29, 2009 2:08 pm

I have no idea.  I'm just the messenger.

FinnyDD Friday, Oct 2, 2009 7:51 pm

Does this work for Vista x64Bit?  Any help is appreciated.

sb Friday, Jan 22, 2010 5:30 pm

cheers works a treat!

X Tuesday, Feb 16, 2010 10:24 pm

almost two years later, still works XD thank you

villa Thursday, Feb 18, 2010 9:07 pm

tnk, works super ok for my sp3

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Hi, my name is Dave Hosier, and this website is where I write my unfounded opinions on trivial matters. Feel free to look around, but please refrain from reading anything.

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