View PSD Thumbnails Using Windows 7 – 32 & 64 Bit versions – Finally!

I posted a tutorial to allow viewing of PSD thumbnails under Windows 7 back in March. That method works for most people using 32 bit versions of Windows 7 and Vista.

However 64 bit users were left out. Although we had some users report success using this method, over 80% of the feedback I personally received indicated quite the contrary. Almost all users were still looking at the following.

Today that will change.  There are probably other options to achieve the same result but this is a sure-fire way to get there easily.

Testing Machine

Sad face because of a limited amount of system ECC RAM.  The system I am using today is a Dell Precision Workstation 470 using the stock configuration. A fresh installation of Windows 7 Ultimate was performed prior to writing this article. All Windows updates were done along with installing Apple iTunes/Quicktime and Google Chrome.

The solution? Enter Ardfry Imaging and their fantastic PSD codec. The issue that most users faced could be addressed with a two minute install and reboot.

Installation

Download the codec using one of the links in this article, and double click to start the install just like any other windows program. Ardfry provides a 15 day free trial to make sure the solution will work for your machine. The full license is only $19.95 USD, which is a small price to pay for a fantastic program.

You are then presented with the standard Windows installation routine.

And the EULA.

More Windows installation action.

And more

Interestingly at this point the setup routine seems to invoke another MSI installer that proceeds to install what seems to be a 32 bit version of the codec. Our guess is that it installs both 32 and 64 bit versions instead of specific OS version via detection.

And then the obligatory “Setup must restart your computer” dialog.

And after a reboot, voila, PSD thumbnails appear just (almost) like any other image file we normally encounter.

There are some optional settings available in the start menu program group that was just created. Users may want to have a look and see if anything may apply to their particular machine or needs.

And then suddenly while I browsed PSD files on a Windows Home Server share, an explorer.exe crash.

Success!

So I rebooted the machine once more. And all seems to be fine now. And I am able to browse and view the thumbnails via network shares with no issue.

Viewing PSD files.

There you have it. A long drawn out blog post instructing you how to install a simple windows program.

I would like to thank David with Ardfry Imaging for supplying the software for testing and reviewing today. So head on over to Ardfry.com and check out their programs. Don’t forget to show some love to the developers that bring useful tools to the party.