Skip to main content ↑ ↓

Notice

Please note that most of the software linked on this forum is likely to be safe to use. If you are unsure, feel free to ask in the relevant topics, or send a private message to an administrator or moderator. To help curb the problems of false positives, or in the event that you do find actual malware, you can contribute through the article linked here.
Topic: Cover Art Display in Windows Explorer (Read 10628 times) previous topic - next topic
0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Cover Art Display in Windows Explorer

I recently moved to a new PC running Windows 7 x64.  My music collection is organized in folders as ARTIST\ALBUM\NN - TITLE.EXT.  Although I use foobar2000 for all my music tasks I like that some of my ARTIST folders display album art as their icon in Windows Explorer.  Problem is that some don't.  At first I thought it was because Windows looks in the ALBUM folders for a file named "folder.jpg" for this purpose and my cover art is universally named "cover.jpg".  Easy enough to copy a few files rename them and test the results.  If there is a folder.jpg in the ALBUM folder then that image shows up on the icon for that album folder but not one level up at the ARTIST folder level as is the case with some of my artists.  In fact when this works at the ARTIST level and there are multiple albums in that artist folder then the ARTIST folder icon will show two cover art images.  On the ones that worked I found there was another hidden "system" file in the ALBUM folder called "AlbumArtSmall.jpg".  So I created that file as well and sized it properly at 75x75.  Still no joy.  What does it take to get Windows Explorer to display cover art from ALBUM folders on the next level up?  Thanks.

Here is a small picture of this working properly:

Cover Art Display in Windows Explorer

Reply #1 –
No idea if it's important, but are all folders of the same type? IIRC, Windows Vista and 7 have an option to define if a folder contains documents, pictures and video, audio, etc. It's in the folder properties under Customize or something.

Cover Art Display in Windows Explorer

Reply #2 –
In Win7 it's in "Library" > "Properties" > "Optimize this library for:" > "Music".  Seems ok to me.  Thanks.

Cover Art Display in Windows Explorer

Reply #3 –
In the folder that is working you'll have folder.ini
There will be one for artist and a different one for album.

Like this
Artist
folder.ini
Album 1
  folder.ini
  folder.jpg
Album 2
  folder.ini
  folder.jpg

This produce the correct display here under XP, Vista, and Windows 7

I keep an artist and album ini file for copying to new music.
The other thing I will say is that after you get the album art you want, make the file read only.
Otherwise you may have WMP decide to change it on you without notification.

The artist.ini needs to contain this. You can forget the purchase url and other items.
Code: [Select]
[.ShellClassInfo]
FolderType=MusicArtist


The album.ini need to contain this, again forget the additional info you'll find in the default one.
Code: [Select]
[.ShellClassInfo]
FolderType=MusicAlbum


 

Cover Art Display in Windows Explorer

Reply #4 –
@GHammer, thanks for your suggestion but it did not work for me.  I'm sure Windows knows these folders contain Music because when I right-click on them the menu contains Windows Media Player options.  I also noted that with "show hidden and system files" turned on no INI files appear in my folders that properly show the artwork.

What I've discovered will correct the behavior is:
- In an ARTIST folder that is not functioning properly create a "folder.jpg" in all ALBUM folders; now the cover art will show on the ALBUM folder icons but not on the ARTIST folder icon
- Copy an ALBUM folder from a properly functioning ARTIST directory into the ARTIST directory above; now the cover art from MULTIPLE ALBUMS becomes visible on the ARTIST folder icon
- Delete the ALBUM folder just copied and the remaining cover art stays on the ARTIST folder icon
- This works even if the properly functioning and temporarily copied ALBUM folder is EMPTY!

You are right that there is something "special" about that folder that tells Windows to behave in the proper way.  It's a painstaking manual process as described above however.

Cover Art Display in Windows Explorer

Reply #5 –
Quote from: Apesbrain on
It's a painstaking manual process as described above however.

I could provide a simple batch file to automate this process, if you wish.

Cover Art Display in Windows Explorer

Reply #6 –
Finally figured out the problem.  Album art will appear on the ARTIST folder as long as the folder.jpg file is in the ALBUM folder but you have to force the ARTIST folder to rebuild and refresh its cache.  If you paste a new file in the ARTIST folder and then delete it that's all it takes.  Or you can use CCleaner to clean out all cache folders and reboot.  Thanks all for the suggestions.