Link to home
Create AccountLog in
Avatar of woodstx
woodstx

asked on

How do I show only parent folder with Filename at top of each photo in My Pictures Slideshow Screen Saver?

I have over 12000 .jpg photos in sub-folders in the Windows My Pictures folder. A couple of years ago I was pointed to the registry key << HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Screen Saver.Slideshow>> and reset MaxSuccessfulFiles REG_DWORD to 20000 in order to access them all. My wife and I stop several times a day and test our memories as a different photo pops up.

I turned on Show File Names in the Settings screen of this screen saver in Display Properties/Screen Saver/My Pictures Slideshow (DisplayFileNames REG_DWORD = 1). Unfortunately, the complete path is shown with the photo filename at the end. If the path is longer than the width of the photo, often the parent folder is replaced with three dots. I would like only the parent folder plus the filename displayed so I could easily locate a photo I saw on the screen. Is there a registry entry or some other was to do this?

woodstx
Avatar of woodstx
woodstx

ASKER

The last sentence should read
Is there a registry entry or some other WAY to do this?
The path that is shown is just the full path to the file. There is no option in the screen saver to change that, just whether to display the path. As this is coded into the screen saver itself, there is no way to change what it displays.

For your purposes however, you might try downloading IrfanView.
http://www.irfanview.com/

It is a free image viewer program, that does have a built in slideshow. In regular and full screen settings there is an option to Show Text. If you set it to "$d\$F" it will do what you are looking for. It also has the option to save your slidshow to an exe file or a screensaver.
Avatar of woodstx

ASKER

Thanks Kenneniah,

I was afraid the path was hard coded but was hoping there might be more than just true or false for DisplayFileNames REG_DWORD = 1.

http://www.irfanview.com/ has a plug-in described as
SLIDESHOW - (version 3.98): allows IrfanView to create presentations in EXE or SCR format (standalone executable/screen saver). which sounds like the functionality of DZSoft Slide Show which I have used for small sub-sets of .jpg files for several years.

I have three major requirements
(1) the screen saver must access files in place and not recopy them into a huge .exe as DZFoft does. I have too many gigs of photos now and don't want to double that. Screen Saver.Slideshow does that.
(2) files must be displayed in random order - that creates the fun. Screen Saver.Slideshow does that.
(3) the file name and parent folder name must be visible. Screen Saver.Slideshow does too much of that at times.

I'll leave this open for a few days in case some one has an Eurika answer. If not, I'll give you the points for being kind enough to take me seriously and make a constructive suggestion.

woodstx
ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION
Avatar of Kenneniah
Kenneniah

Link to home
membership
Create a free account to see this answer
Signing up is free and takes 30 seconds. No credit card required.
See answer
Tried looking through ssmypics.scr with a resource hacker, and haven't been able to locate a way to change it :(
Also used Regmon to monitor all attempts it makes to look for registry keys. The only ones it tries to look for are...

16.74025726      ssmypics.scr:2576      QueryValue      HKCU\Control Panel\Screen Saver.Slideshow\ImageDirectory      NOT FOUND            
16.74027061      ssmypics.scr:2576      QueryValue      HKCU\Control Panel\Screen Saver.Slideshow\PaintInterval      SUCCESS      0x0      
16.74028015      ssmypics.scr:2576      QueryValue      HKCU\Control Panel\Screen Saver.Slideshow\PaintInterval      SUCCESS      0x0      
16.74028969      ssmypics.scr:2576      QueryValue      HKCU\Control Panel\Screen Saver.Slideshow\PaintInterval      SUCCESS      0x0      
16.74030113      ssmypics.scr:2576      QueryValue      HKCU\Control Panel\Screen Saver.Slideshow\ChangeInterval      SUCCESS      0x1770      
16.74031067      ssmypics.scr:2576      QueryValue      HKCU\Control Panel\Screen Saver.Slideshow\ChangeInterval      SUCCESS      0x1770      
16.74032021      ssmypics.scr:2576      QueryValue      HKCU\Control Panel\Screen Saver.Slideshow\ChangeInterval      SUCCESS      0x1770      
16.74032974      ssmypics.scr:2576      QueryValue      HKCU\Control Panel\Screen Saver.Slideshow\DisplayFilename      SUCCESS      0x1      
16.74034119      ssmypics.scr:2576      QueryValue      HKCU\Control Panel\Screen Saver.Slideshow\DisplayFilename      SUCCESS      0x1      
16.74035072      ssmypics.scr:2576      QueryValue      HKCU\Control Panel\Screen Saver.Slideshow\DisplayFilename      SUCCESS      0x1      
16.74036026      ssmypics.scr:2576      QueryValue      HKCU\Control Panel\Screen Saver.Slideshow\MaxScreenPercent      SUCCESS      0x5A      
16.74037170      ssmypics.scr:2576      QueryValue      HKCU\Control Panel\Screen Saver.Slideshow\MaxScreenPercent      SUCCESS      0x5A      
16.74038124      ssmypics.scr:2576      QueryValue      HKCU\Control Panel\Screen Saver.Slideshow\MaxScreenPercent      SUCCESS      0x5A      
16.74039268      ssmypics.scr:2576      QueryValue      HKCU\Control Panel\Screen Saver.Slideshow\DisableTransitions      SUCCESS      0x0      
16.74040222      ssmypics.scr:2576      QueryValue      HKCU\Control Panel\Screen Saver.Slideshow\DisableTransitions      SUCCESS      0x0      
16.74041176      ssmypics.scr:2576      QueryValue      HKCU\Control Panel\Screen Saver.Slideshow\DisableTransitions      SUCCESS      0x0      
16.74042320      ssmypics.scr:2576      QueryValue      HKCU\Control Panel\Screen Saver.Slideshow\AllowStretching      SUCCESS      0x0      
16.74043274      ssmypics.scr:2576      QueryValue      HKCU\Control Panel\Screen Saver.Slideshow\AllowStretching      SUCCESS      0x0      
16.74044418      ssmypics.scr:2576      QueryValue      HKCU\Control Panel\Screen Saver.Slideshow\AllowStretching      SUCCESS      0x0      
16.74045372      ssmypics.scr:2576      QueryValue      HKCU\Control Panel\Screen Saver.Slideshow\AllowKeyboardControl      SUCCESS      0x1      
16.74046516      ssmypics.scr:2576      QueryValue      HKCU\Control Panel\Screen Saver.Slideshow\AllowKeyboardControl      SUCCESS      0x1      
16.74047470      ssmypics.scr:2576      QueryValue      HKCU\Control Panel\Screen Saver.Slideshow\AllowKeyboardControl      SUCCESS      0x1      
16.74048615      ssmypics.scr:2576      QueryValue      HKCU\Control Panel\Screen Saver.Slideshow\MaxFailedFiles      SUCCESS      0x3E8      
16.74049568      ssmypics.scr:2576      QueryValue      HKCU\Control Panel\Screen Saver.Slideshow\MaxFailedFiles      SUCCESS      0x3E8      
16.74050522      ssmypics.scr:2576      QueryValue      HKCU\Control Panel\Screen Saver.Slideshow\MaxFailedFiles      SUCCESS      0x3E8      
16.74052429      ssmypics.scr:2576      QueryValue      HKCU\Control Panel\Screen Saver.Slideshow\MaxSuccessfulFiles      SUCCESS      0x10000      
16.74053383      ssmypics.scr:2576      QueryValue      HKCU\Control Panel\Screen Saver.Slideshow\MaxSuccessfulFiles      SUCCESS      0x10000      
16.74054527      ssmypics.scr:2576      QueryValue      HKCU\Control Panel\Screen Saver.Slideshow\MaxSuccessfulFiles      SUCCESS      0x10000      
16.74055672      ssmypics.scr:2576      QueryValue      HKCU\Control Panel\Screen Saver.Slideshow\MaxDirectories      SUCCESS      0xC8      
16.74056625      ssmypics.scr:2576      QueryValue      HKCU\Control Panel\Screen Saver.Slideshow\MaxDirectories      SUCCESS      0xC8      
16.74057579      ssmypics.scr:2576      QueryValue      HKCU\Control Panel\Screen Saver.Slideshow\MaxDirectories      SUCCESS      0xC8      

So doesn't look like a registry option either :(
Avatar of woodstx

ASKER

Thanks for all the work. The RegMon log  is conclusive. I'll see if IrfanView does the job.

I have awarded the points to you with an A+