Our program was written to give the computer user tools to reconstruct Thumbs.db (thumbcache_*.db, ehthumbs.db) database records.

The new release of Thumbs.db Viewer: version 2.2. This version represents a significant improvement. The program was completely rewritten, and is much more usable now.

Many new features have been added, including:

• new interface;
• thumbnails gallery (up to 15 pictures per page);
• at first start the program automatically displays the content of the found thumbcache file;
• new navigation (usable Track Bar);
• thumbcache_idx.db full support;
• disassembled and displaying headers of thumbcache files;
• disassembled and displaying headers of entries for thumbcache_idx.db;
• disassembled and displaying headers of thumbnails;
• displaying image details, etc.;
• uninstall program;
• supports file extension-based associations (if they have not been previously defined);
• toggle the display hidden system files and folders on and off via main menu;
• manual file in pdf format;
• english, german, russian and french interface;
• "More Details" button for Windows Vista thumbcache files;
• work of the "Extract/Open Selected File" buttons and "Extract/Open Selected File" main menu (context menu) items are differs now.

Our program allows to reconstruct Windows' thumbnails stored into: thumbs.db; ehthumbs.db (Windows XP Media Center Edition); thumbcache_*.db (Windows Vista).

From Windows Vista Thumbs.db file has been replaced by a number of "thumbcache_*.db" (thumbcache_32.db, thumbcache_96.db, thumbcache_256.db, thumbcache_1024.db, thumbcache_sr.db, thumbcache_idx.db) files which are now located within a user's profile

The Microsoft Windows operating system has the ability to generate thumbnail views of files and display them to the user.

A thumbnail view is commonly known to be a miniature picture that represents a larger graphic.

Operating system create hidden system files aren't visible to the common user. This system file is called a Thumbs.db and is actually a database of the miniature images that exist in the folder from which they were initiated. Thumbs.db files will contain an image of every graphic in the folder if the user viewed them as thumbnails. Each time files are added to the folder, new records and miniature graphics will be created in the Thumbs.db. An interesting aspect of Thumbs.db files is that when a graphic is viewed and an entry made for it in the database, it is maintained indefinitely by the operating system. If the file is deleted, the image will remain unless the Thumbs.db file or the entire folder are deleted.

The early versions of Thumbs.db files as they appeared in Windows ME and Windows 2000 contained not only the thumbnail image of the parent file, but also the filename, drive letter, and path to that image. Later versions, Windows XP and Windows 2003, store the image and its filename but not the path. See Table below for variations in these operating systems.

	Windows ME	Windows 2000 (FAT)	Windows XP	Windows 2003	Windows Vista	Windows 7
Drive	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No
File name	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Reference	Reference
Path	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No

In Windows Vista Thumbs.db file has been replaced by a number of "thumbcache_xxx.db" files which are now located within a user's profile at \Users\<username>\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Explorer

If you don't see the thumbs.db file on your system, first make sure you have show hidden files and folders selected in your Windows Explorer Options Tab. Go to Windows Explorer, select "Tools|Folder Options", select the View tab and check the "Show hidden files and folders" option as well as unselecting "Hide extensions for known file types" and unselecting "Hide protected operating system files". If you still don't see it, you may have a Windows 2000 operating system working on an NTFS drive in which case you will not have a thumbs.db but rather Alternate Data Streams handling the thumbnails.

The "File" item in the main menu has two options for showing hidden system files: Show hidden files and folders Do not show hidden files and folders

Thumbs.db Viewer 2 allows:

• displaying Thumbs.db database records as well as the miniature graphics generated in each (with the original file name and timestamp);
• displaying technical information (headers of files, entries and thumbnails, image details, etc.);
• collects all the Thumbs.db files in and below the specified folder;
• searches the Recycle Bin (INFO2 files) for deleted Thumbs.db files;
• extracts and views all or selected pictures as an HTML representation;
• views with an external image viewer any of the original files corresponding to those stored in the Thumbs.db thumbnail metadata (if it exists);
• views the image in full size or as the best fit for the program`s window;
• rotates images right or left by 90 degrees;
• using a heuristic algorithm, the program can search swap and hibernation files for JPG graphic files.