Dreams previews

A nightmare to choose.....

from WinCustomize Forums

I wonder if anyone is experiencing this, or know the cause/a solution to this rather annoying 'thing':

I have no proper Dream-previews....

Picking out a specific Dream is a nightmare.... (sorry, bad pun)

Anyway... any clues?

 

deskscapes
6,643 views 11 replies
Reply #1 from WinCustomize Forums Top

Have you updated video drivers lately?

This happened to me once after updating my NVIDIA 8800GTS drivers and I had to revert back to a prior version to fix it.

 

Reply #2 from WinCustomize Forums Top

I think the skin you use is causing this trouble. I had used Aquamarine theme and when I go to change my dream, the same thing happens to me..... But I thing CarGuy is right. You Must update your drivers

 

Start11 - Customize the Start Menu and Taskbar in Windows 10/11.
Reply #3 from WinCustomize Forums Top

Have you updated video drivers lately?
End of quote

Nope. No changes in that direction have been made, but I might try updating'em
(nVidia 7.15.11.6925 - I know, kinda 'outdated')

I think the skin you use is causing this trouble
End of quote

Again, nope. It's not a skin-specific problem. Happens with every skin I use
(not that I change skin that often)

I think I'll have a go at updating me drivers.

Reply #4 from WinCustomize Forums Top

Updated drivers to 7.15.11.7824 - still the same; no Dreams preview.

Reply #5 from WinCustomize Forums Top

Installed any driver/codec packs?!   The wrong one will mess up your thumbnail associations for sure.

Reply #6 from WinCustomize Forums Top

Installed any driver/codec packs?
End of quote

Hmmm..... I just might have a closer look at this one. As a matter of fact that could be it. I also have issues with playing some movie files with WinAmp. (but they play just fine with VLC)

Which codec(s) is/are recommended to use/not use?

Reply #7 from WinCustomize Forums Top

I have the same issue so I am watching this one close. Same drivers installed also.

My research was leading me towards Codecs as well but I gave up. Vista is like owning a Ford.

 

I installed VLC per someones suggestion in hopes it would install some missing/ damaged WMP codecs but no luck..

 

I lurk...

Reply #8 from WinCustomize Forums Top

Now that you mention it, I've heard of the ffshow codec pack causing thumbnail problems.

Download and install Nirsoft's InstalledCodec and sort the codecs by date, then right click and disable them one at a time, starting with the newest one, until you find the the culprit.

You can get it here... http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/installed_codec.html

Reply #9 from WinCustomize Forums Top
I did a fresh install of Vista and had the problem still. Here is what I found out.
The reason this is, is because of the way Vista displays thumbnails.

Something I think that wasn't in XP, is that Vista detects if the start of the video is a fade-in and only shows the thumbnail of the content after that fade-in, because if you had a folder full of files that started with a fade-in, all you'd get would be blank thumbnails.

So Vista goes through each frame to find the lightest. If Vista finds one that is light enough within 7 seconds, it displays, otherwise, it times outs.

Because that puddle one is dark the whole way through, Vista goes through EVERY frame to find the lightest, because the lightest is quite near the end (those who are seeing the thumbnail will see it's near the end) the request will probably time out for most machines.

So the faster computers will be able to display that thumbnail, slower ones won't. However, if Vista grabs it once, it'll be cached.
Reply #10 from WinCustomize Forums Top

Night Train...That's only on video clips such as mpg or wmv. Snowman's post is refering to dreams, not video clips.

Part of the process when making a dream is manually assigning a thumbnail jpg or png to the dream itself so the the issue your referring to doesn't affect dreams.

Reply #11 from WinCustomize Forums Top

For one this looks like it is missing something here as seen here

 

Can you try clicking on Desktop Earth Dream? Which is dynamic and should display this information as seen here

 

If not then I believe the problem is system related to missing DLL files [or just maybe corrupted]...

I need more info as to what you have installed and/or are running. Could very well be your DLL cache is run out of space or you have lost it completely. This could also be related to a service not running. Thus it was disabled by some other program.

Check services...

If you are still not finding things - then go to run and type msinfo32 press ok and go to file and export it to a text file. Then send it to me so I can figure the possiblies as to what you do or do not have...

My email is in my profile.