I don't know about you, but I do like my thumbs. Both of 'em. The spacebar
wouldn't be the same without it.

But there is one place where I do NOT want to see "thumbs," and that's in my
Paradox databases! Unfortunately that is one of the many places where
recent versions of Windows like to put a file called THUMBS.DB.

You do not normally see "THUMBS" because it is a hidden, system file. It
contains thumbnail-previews of images. And it is not, most emphatically IS
NOT, a Paradox database. Which is where a curious problem can arise.

Here we have a file with a ".DB" extension, (say) located in a Paradox
database directory, which is nonetheless NOT a Paradox table-file. The
fact that it is 'hidden' and 'system' does not necessarily conceal it from
Paradox. Which might proceed to try to open it, in any one of many
different situations.

The result? "Unpredictable." Heh heh heh....

The (only) solution? Look for and get rid of these files if they are in
places where they are not supposed to be.


----
ChimneySweep(R): Fast(!) table repair at a click of the mouse!
http://www.sundialservices.com

When I'm dealing with a directory full of files.... such as backing up,
copying, doing table diagnostics, etc.... I have written (in my OPAL code)
to ignore certain files... "thumbs.db" is one of them.

Paradox doesn't "automatically" look at or process the "thumbs.db" file as a
part of any of its native functions.... that I'm aware of.

Since "thumbs.db" has been around a long time now, I think that current
applications should be "thumbs.db" aware.


--
....
`·.¸¸.·´¯`·.¸¸.·´¯`·-> rodney

On 28 Aug 2007, Sundial Services <info (AT) sundialservices (DOT) com> wrote in
comp.databases.paradox:

There will only be a THUMBS.DB file in a directory that contains image
files. If there are picture files there and you have that Windows
option turned on, than THUMBS.DB is supposed to be there. But how many
people keep images in their database directory?

You can turn off the use of THUMBS.DB by turning on the option Control
Panel | Folder Options | View | Do not cache thumbnails.

Rodney Wise wrote:
In a database system that was being actively kept up-to-date by its vendor,
certainly so. *sigh...* But there are many different versions out there,
and some of them will die in the restructure-dialog if this hidden file is
out there.

----
ChimneySweep(R): Fast(!) table repair at a click of the mouse!
http://www.sundialservices.com

On Wed, 29 Aug 2007 07:55:47 -0500, Nil wrote:

Heh. Good point. I thought I had mine turned off -- I didn't.

The thing that's so stupid about thumbs.db is that it tries to regenerate
itself as soon as you open a folder in thumbnail view. What's the point of
caching images if the system reads everything from file anyway? I mean,
that's what caching is supposed to prevent! (ACDSee does it too. So does
IrfanView. Microsoft and the sheep.)


Jim Hargan