Here's our Tip for.. April 24, 1997
Click Here to see a complete list of all of our previously released Tips!
Display .BMP files as icons
Apply here payday loans
Want to make sorting and viewing .BMP files a snap in Explorer views? For this you need to identify which File Type or Description is used for your .BMP files. Open \HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT and scroll down until you come to .BMP. Highlight it and look in the right pane under Data to determine what File Type you're looking for. The Default is generally Paint.Picture, but if you've installed any new graphics applications or viewers lately, this may have changed. Assuming that it is still Paint.Picture, go down through the same tree until you come to \HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Paint.Picture\DefaultIcon. Highlight DefaultIcon, then double-click the (Default) entry in the right pane. Modify the Value data value to %1 and click OK. (You may want to make a note of the original value in case you ever need or want to restore it.) Now every .BMP file will display itself as its own icon, as shown below.

The "%1" tells Windows that the default icon for this file type is in the file itself, and since there is no icon in a .BMP file, Windows 95 makes a small preview image of the .BMP for the icon.

You can also rename any .BMP file to .ICO, then use it as an icon for other applications. Windows 95 will resize the file to icon size and change it to 16-color. How well it actually appears on screen depends on many factors, such as its original size, complexity, and depth of color. In other words, some .BMPs will convert better than others.

WARNING!! This is a REGISTRY HACK! And as such, you MUST FIRST make a backup of your Registry so that you can recover from any mistakes you might make. The Registry is a very unforgiving place if you don't know EXACTLY what you are doing. An incorrect Registry entry can render your entire system INOPERABLE. DO NOT attempt to change Registry settings without a Backup. Don't say we didn't warn you...

The Configuration Backup Utility is one of the CD-Extras, so if you don't have the CD-ROM version of Windows 95, CLICK HERE to download it now.

Apply here payday loans