OT - At last, a Windows Explorer work-around for .jpg folders

Were you opening the files with Photoshop or Windows? I've got +10
character filename jpgs scattered all over my home and work harddrives and
have never had this problem with Photoshop 6 and WinXP.

I wasn't even opening the files. This glitch is a function of clicking on
the FOLDER (that contains the .jpg files) in Windows Explorer, which then,
in turn, crashes while the resulting window is being populated with icons.

Go to a directory (or "folder") in Windows Explorer that has a file name
longer than 10 characters, and has many (say, 100) .jpg files in it. If
you've got Photoshop set to be your default picture viewer, Explorer might
crash when you simply click on the folder.

I don't know why this doesn't impact all users. I don't think Microsoft
knows, either. I'm just glad to have a work-around.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

them. Not once has windows or just windows explorer crashed. I've never
even heard of the problem.

Count your blessings. It's been a scourge of mine for several years.

For a while this same type of thing (instant shut-down, no "blue screen of
death" or any warning at all) would happen with Frontpage, too, but
Microsoft seems to have licked that in one of their recent upgrades.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

"Jay Honeck" writes:

Microsoft has been strangely silent on this problem, much to my dismay.
Luckily, today I FINALLY found the solution. The glitch has to do
with the icons that are used in Explorer to denote a picture file, and
(in turn) it's also directly related to having Photoshop set up as your
default picture viewer. Further, it also is directly related to having
folder names that are longer than 10 characters long -- something XP
can handle, but (apparently) Photoshop cannot.

SO, long story short, there are now TWO work-arounds to this problem:

1. Uninstall Photoshop, and reinstall it without making it the default
picture file viewer for .jpg flies. This allows you to still use long
folder names.

2. Leave Photoshop as is, but be sure to keep your file names to 10 or
fewer characters in length.

I have chosen the latter course, for now, and it works.

Why the heck Microsoft or Adobe couldn't simply announce this
problem/fix is beyond me -- it's been a hot topic of discussion all
over the 'net, and most people with XP and Photoshop have experienced
it at times. It took a generous computer sleuth to figure out the
solution, through trial and error, and post it online.

Glad you got your problem resolved.

I find it interesting that, although photography is my main hobby, and
I participate in many photo newsgroups and mailing lists, I've never
heard anybody mention a problem like this, and never experienced it
myself. However, I've never had Photoshop as my default viewer, I
find it rather overkill (IrfanView is my default viewer; I can
transfer to photoshop from within IrfanView and from within Thumbs
Plus).
--
David Dyer-Bennet, , http://www.dd-b.net/dd-b/
RKBA: http://www.dd-b.net/carry/
Pics: http://dd-b.lighthunters.net/ http://www.dd-b.net/dd-b/SnapshotAlbum/
Dragaera/Steven Brust: http://dragaera.info/

Interesting, I have tons of .jpgs on my hard drive and run Windows ME. I
have had no problems, but I don't have file names that long. I usually
keep the camera file name. I use Photoshop to print and inhance as I
need. But I have found that it is much cheaper for Wall-Mart to do my
printing if I have a lot of photos to print. My wife likes to keep photo
albums also.

Ross

Jay Honeck wrote:

Like many of you, I keep a LOT of pictures on my hard drive. Also,
like many of you, I use Adobe Photoshop to crop and enhance my photos.

I have had an infuriating problem with Windows Explorer (in Win XP,
both Home and Professional) crashing instantly and utterly when trying
to open a folder with many .jpg picture files in it. It wouldn't do it
all the time, but when it did, it was always fatal -- there was no
warning, and no work-around.

I eventually found that I could use DOS (remember DOS?) to copy the
files into a new folder, higher "upstream" in the directory tree, which
would allow it to work without crashing. (In the C:/ root directory,
for example, rather than buried down in C:\family photos\las vegas)

This was a giant pain in the tooska, however, as using DOS commands to
copy files from a folder that is 10 levels deep in a directory tree is
an exercise in frustration. One wrong character, and *bzzzzt!*, it
ain't gonna work.

Microsoft has been strangely silent on this problem, much to my dismay.
Luckily, today I FINALLY found the solution. The glitch has to do
with the icons that are used in Explorer to denote a picture file, and
(in turn) it's also directly related to having Photoshop set up as your
default picture viewer. Further, it also is directly related to having
folder names that are longer than 10 characters long -- something XP
can handle, but (apparently) Photoshop cannot.

SO, long story short, there are now TWO work-arounds to this problem:

1. Uninstall Photoshop, and reinstall it without making it the default
picture file viewer for .jpg flies. This allows you to still use long
folder names.

2. Leave Photoshop as is, but be sure to keep your file names to 10 or
fewer characters in length.

I have chosen the latter course, for now, and it works.

Why the heck Microsoft or Adobe couldn't simply announce this
problem/fix is beyond me -- it's been a hot topic of discussion all
over the 'net, and most people with XP and Photoshop have experienced
it at times. It took a generous computer sleuth to figure out the
solution, through trial and error, and post it online.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

"Dylan Smith" wrote in message
...
It is for exactly reasons like this I love Apple iPhoto so much.

Anyone who thinks that Apple iPhoto (or any other particular software
application) is immune to this kind of problem is an idiot.

All software has bugs. The main question is whether you use the software in
a way that causes you to see them.

Jay - I remembered seeing mention of something that sounded like
9kinda, sorta, at least) to what you experienced. Here are a few links
that may or may not help (sometimes, when researching an issue, I find
information that appears to not even be close, but in reading through
it, one picks up a hint or tip that will help lead to the solution you
are looking for.)

(in no particular order - and watch for wrapping - if it bad, I'll come
back with make-a-shorter-link(s) )

http://www.experts-exchange.com/Oper..._20796444.html

http://www.helpwithwindows.com/techf...r-crashes.html

http://www.annoyances.org/exec/forum/winxp/t1061425126
(this is quite a long thread, but as you scroll through the fluff, you
may find some other useful links...)

http://forums.us.dell.com/supportfor...ssage.id=53588



Good luck.

Randy

I have a similar problem to the one Jay had, but I don't use Photoshop. If
I try and scroll down one particular (large) folder of pictures, and if I
have the view by "Thumbnails" option on, likely as not the entire folder
will suddenly disappear from the screen. I can reopen it, but now it's even
more likely that the same thing will happen. If I have view by "List" or
"Details" on instead, it seems to always work. Very frustrating, because
who can remember what "P2349737.jpg" was?

--
Bob (Chief Pilot, White Knuckle Airways)


"Newps" wrote in message
...


Jay Honeck wrote:

Like many of you, I keep a LOT of pictures on my hard drive. Also,
like many of you, I use Adobe Photoshop to crop and enhance my photos.

I have had an infuriating problem with Windows Explorer (in Win XP,
both Home and Professional) crashing instantly and utterly when trying
to open a folder with many .jpg picture files in it. It wouldn't do it
all the time, but when it did, it was always fatal -- there was no
warning, and no work-around.


What's a lot of pictures? I have 5 folders, labeled by year for the last
5 years. Each folder has several hundred pictures. 90+ percent of the
pictures have been fixed or cropped and every one of them has had their
name changed. Every one of them is a jpg. I use 3 different programs for
working with these pictures, but Photoshop is not one of them. Not once
has windows or just windows explorer crashed. I've never even heard of
the problem.

I have a similar problem to the one Jay had, but I don't use Photoshop. If
I try and scroll down one particular (large) folder of pictures, and if I
have the view by "Thumbnails" option on, likely as not the entire folder
will suddenly disappear from the screen.

That's the problem precisely, Bob. Does Windows Explorer shut down
completely when this happens?

The work-around may be the same. You might try shorter folder (not file)
names?
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

"Jay Honeck" wrote in message newsmlUf.44562$oL.15608@attbi_s71...
I have a similar problem to the one Jay had, but I don't use Photoshop. If I try and scroll down one particular
(large) folder of pictures, and if I have the view by "Thumbnails" option on, likely as not the entire folder will
suddenly disappear from the screen.

That's the problem precisely, Bob. Does Windows Explorer shut down completely when this happens?

The work-around may be the same. You might try shorter folder (not file) names?
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"



Wow, I have a folder with 5653 files in 9 folders buries down under this path: "D:\My Documents - Shared\My
Pictures\planes". I do not recall any crashes or hung machines ever. I do have photoshop SE and I do use the thumbnail
view quite often. Am I lucky?

"David Dyer-Bennet" wrote in message ...

Glad you got your problem resolved.

I find it interesting that, although photography is my main hobby, and
I participate in many photo newsgroups and mailing lists, I've never
heard anybody mention a problem like this, and never experienced it
myself. However, I've never had Photoshop as my default viewer, I
find it rather overkill (IrfanView is my default viewer; I can
transfer to photoshop from within IrfanView and from within Thumbs
Plus).
--
David Dyer-Bennet, , http://www.dd-b.net/dd-b/
RKBA: http://www.dd-b.net/carry/
Pics: http://dd-b.lighthunters.net/ http://www.dd-b.net/dd-b/SnapshotAlbum/
Dragaera/Steven Brust: http://dragaera.info/



I wonder if it is a hardware issue; main system memory or hard drive...