How to retrieve the file previews used by windows explorer in Windows vista and seven?

Question

I am developing a Delphi documents management application, so somehow I am giving the user some functionality similar to windows explorer.

I would like to know if there is a way to get the preview used by windows explorer. For example windows explorer creates a small thumbnail for a pdf document for example, and displays it when the user chooses to view "big icons". Is there a way to retrieve that preview?

MyTImage := GiveMePreviewForFile('C:\Test\File.pdf');

Answer 1

@user193655, using the IExtractImage interface is the way to go, this interface exposes methods that request a thumbnail image from a Shell folder

you can find a very complete sample in this site and the source code is here.

check this image

Answer 2

Take a look at the docs for IExtractImage. Basically you use IShellFolder with IExtractImage to get the picture you are looking for.