[RESOLVED] How to get the image shown by Explorer when viewing by Medium/Large/Extra Large Icons

In Windows File Explorer, browsing a folder containing image files, when I select to View by Small Icon, a generic file type icon is shown. When I select to View by Medium/Large/Extra Large Icon, a thumbnail of the image is shown.

I know how to programmatically get the file type icon image from the system image list. How do I get the medium/large/extra large thumbnail of the image and load that into an image list for use in my program (listview, dialogs, etc...)

Thanks in advance for any guidance you can provide!

To get the best results like you see in Explorer, you need to use a combination of methods to handle every scenario: [VB6, Vista+] Advanced Thumbnail ListView: Icons, images, videos, framed small images
http://www.vbforums.com/images/ieimages/2016/08/1.jpg

The main function of interest though, if you just want limited support, is the IShellItemImageFactory class:

Code:

---

Public Declare Function SHCreateItemFromIDList Lib "shell32" (ByVal pidl As Long, riid As UUID, ppv As Any) As Long
Public Declare Function DeleteObject Lib "gdi32" (ByVal hObject As Long) As Long
Public Declare Function ILCreateFromPathW Lib "shell32" (ByVal pwszPath As Long) As Long
Public Declare Sub CoTaskMemFree Lib "ole32.dll" (ByVal PV As Long) ' Frees memory allocated by the shell

Public Function FileToHIML(himl As Long, pidlFQ As Long, CX As Long, CY As Long, lFlags As SIIGBF) As Long
Dim isiif As IShellItemImageFactory
Dim hr As Long
Dim hBmp As Long
On Error GoTo e0

hr = SHCreateItemFromIDList(pidlFQ, IID_IShellItemImageFactory, isiif)
hr = isiif.GetImage(CX, CY, lFlags, hBmp)
If hr = S_OK Then
    FileToHIML = ImageList_Add(himl, hBmp, 0)
    DeleteObject hBmp
Else
    FileToHIML = -1
End If

Set isiif = Nothing

Exit Function
e0:
Debug.Print "FileToHIML Error: " & Err.Description & ", hr=0x" & Hex$(hr)
FileToHIML = -1
End Function

---

which is called like

Code:

---

    pidl = ILCreateFromPathW(StrPtr(App.Path & "\Images\32.png"))
    hr = FileToHIML(himl, pidl, cxThumb, cyThumb, SIIGBF_THUMBNAILONLY)
    Call CoTaskMemFree(pidl)

---

where himl is the handle to your imagelist (API imagelist; if you're not using that I can provide more details),

That will get a thumbnail if it has one (and the image file isn't smaller than the requested size; that's one of the exceptions the advanced thumbview handles).
If that fails (hr=-1), re-request it with SIIGBF_ICONONLY.

That covers all files; you still get the default icon for tiny images and any non-image file (the full size icon too; it will load 256x256 icons if requested).

You might also want to look at my new project, [VB6] Dynamic Resize: Use a slider to change ListView icon/thumbnail size on the fly

Exactly what I was looking for! Well, not EXACTLY. I was hoping Windows provided one nice neat API method which handled all of the various cases. But in the absence of that I do appreciate all of your and dilettante's efforts to put this together. I downloaded and ran your "Advanced Thumbnail ListView" sample project and it works great. Thank you!

If you just want to mimic the current Explorer settings for normal icon view (as opposed to Explorer's Thumbnail View), you can just use the FileToHIML function alone with SIIGBF_ICONONLY; that will show the icon Explorer does even if it's a thumbnail, as long as it's a thumbnail in normal icon view, and the image isn't smaller than the requested size. You don't have to worry about fallbacks for that as at worst it will return an icon. Note that if the user has thumbnails disabled, they'll be disabled in your program too then. I've also revised the function above to have an error handler like it should.