Change Thumbnail Preview Size in Windows Vista
The thumbnail preview that props up in the Windows Vista taskbar is a well-appreciated innovation. However, many users complain that the size of the preview is a touch too small. If you wish to tweak the size of this thumbnail preview, you can use the Vista Thumbnail Sizer utility. This handy application allows you to change the size of the taskbar thumbnail preview pop-up that is visible whenever the mouse pauses over a taskbar button.
Besides this primary function, the Vista Thumbnail Sizer also has a fade-in and fade-out feature for the thumbnail preview. This is just an added bonus to the main idea.
The size of the thumbnail preview is by default hard-coded in Explorer.exe. The way by which the Vista Thumbnail Sizer achieves the desired result is that it finds the position of the value in Explorer.exe’s memory and then change the size value to user defined value. In addition, the Resizer also loads the taskbandhook.dll hook library into Explorer.exe that then detects if there is any reset on the taskbar and undoes the change. This hook is also necessary for the fading animation of the thumbnail.
You have to note that this utility tweaks the internal data structures of the system, and considering that the Vista system hangs and goes down at the slightest little bug, you have to use it at your own risk.
You can the download the Vista Thumbnail Sizer from here, at Ave’s Vista Apps. The source code is also available for interested programmers.