Is there any C++ lib to read thumbnails from thumb.db in Windows Folder?

Question

I want to read all thumbnails from a folder with images in Windows XP. But if I read image file to get thumbnail, it seems a bit slow, so I wish I can first read the windows image thumbnail cache:thumb.db. Is there any lib in c++ or c to read thumbnails from thumb.db.

Answer 1

The Thumbs.db file is stored in OLE Compound Document format, the same format that many Microsoft Office products use.

You could also try to look into ThumbsDBLib. It is in C# but you can probably see what they do to read the data and convert it to C++.

Note: Windows Vista and later doesn't use Thumbs.db. See the IThumbnailCache interface for Vista and later.

For Vista and later they are stored here: %homedrive%\Users\%username%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Explorer

Answer 2

You might find this useful:

ThumbsDBLib in C++

http://www.windameister.org/blog/index.php/thumbslib-in-cpp