How To View Photoshop PSD thumbnails in Windows 7

Microsoft Windows 7 and Vista  introduced a new imaging stack, called Windows Imaging Component (WIC), and uses it in Windows Explorer to create thumbnails for most image file formats. 3rd parties can write their own WIC codec to support proprietary image formats such as Sigma X3F or Pentax PTX raw files and Explorer is able to show thumbnails for those files when the corresponding codec is installed. Microsoft maintains a page containing links to existing codecs.

Sadly, there is no publicly available codec for the Photoshop PSD format but the newly released Microsoft Expression Blend 3 design tool (which, by the way, is nothing short of amazing for WPF and Silverlight design) includes such a codec so installing Blend 3 automatically installs the PSD codec. For those who don’t have a need for Blend and don’t want to install it, here is a little hacking guide to install the codec (a 256KB dll) and use it separately:

Keep reading to see just how easy it is to add the a PSD thumbnail preview to windows in 3 minutes or less

If you attempt to view a folder of PSD files on Windows 7 it will resemble this.

Why Microsoft didn’t include this ability in the first place is anyone’s guess. A quick search on the topic produces some very interesting replies from people from within both Adobe and Microsoft answering questions publicly.

Also note that this method has been tested on both 32 and 64 bit versions of Windows 7 and Vista. You MUST be an Administrator on the local machine to perform this or any codec installation.

Codec Installation: Two files and two steps.

The two necessary files you will need to download are below.

1. The actual codec file from Microsoft PSDCodec.dll . 
2. MS Visual C++ 2008 SP1  Redist Package (x86)

Installing the files

First install the C++ package. You can learn more about what this package is and download it directly from Microsoft if you prefer by visiting this link. When installed you may be prompted to restart your computer but it is not necessary yet as we will be restarting after the next step.

Once that is complete, Copy PSDCodec.dll to some location on the harddisk, e.g. “C:Program FilesCommon FilesPSDCodec” to install the codec in it’s new home.

Registering the codec

Now its time to register the codec. And not register in the traditional sense by entering in all your personal information but instead by using Windows built-in tools to register .dll files as command components in the registry.

From an administrator’s command prompt by clicking the start button, and then clicking “run”. In the windows that opens type “cmd“. That will open a command prompt window. Now issue the following command to register the codec with your computer:

regsvr32 “C:Program FilesCommon FilesPSDCodecPSDCodec.dll”

Now Its time to reboot your computer and the log back into your machine.

Success

That’s it, Windows  Explorer should soon begin to display thumbnails for all PSD files that were saved from Photoshop with the “Maximum Compatibility” option (most are). As a added side effect, WIC-aware image viewers such as FastPictureViewer Professional and even Adobe’s own Bridge automatically benefit from the codec installation and uses it to open and display the same PSD files with full fidelity.

I hope this help those who were faced with the same issue. Please a comment below.

Cheers.

UPDATE: Some readers report that this method does not work for 64bit versions of Windows 7. I am investigating other workarounds to this issue. Stay tuned.

UPDATE 2: 05/26/2010 I have posted another software solution here. Leave us some feedback to let us know how it works for you.

UPDATE 3: 10/10/2010 After 138,000 downloads, there are still very few comments. We still get lots of hits on this page every day. This seems to be an issue that MS has so far, failed to address. If this method works for you, or if you used the codec from Ardfry or even if you have another working solution, please drop a comment and share with everyone.