Coerce Windows to show a thumbnail for my custom file type

Question

I want to use the windows OpenFileDialog class in C# to browse files for my application. I would then like the files to show up with previews in Windows\' \"thumbnails\" view.

Answer 1

You have to write a Shell Extension Handler Thumbnail Image Extractor. This is unmanaged c++ code that extracts the image from your custom filetype to display within explorer shell. You can find more about Shell Extension Handlers at the following link:

Creating Shell Extension Handlers