By default, when you’re browsing your bitmap files (*.bmp), you’ll look their default icon. And the icon is the same for all of bitmap files. And that does not be a problem for common users, but if you often to seeking for a bitmap file, that could be a problem because you can’t see its content. Fortunately, you can hack the registry to force system to preview the bitmap file content as its icon.

The default icon for bmp files are like this picture.

And here is the way:
1. Open Registry Editor by click Start -> Run menu (or press Windows + R keys), enter regedit in box and then press Enter key.

2. Drive to this registry path: HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT \ Paint.Picture \ DefaultIcon.

3. The default value for Default value in DefaultIcon key is shimgvw.dll,1.

4. We need to modify Default value by double click Default value, replace the original value

to %1 and then click OK button.

5. Then you’ll get this appearance on DefaultIcon key.

6. Close Registry Editor and restart your computer.

7. Now, try to open your folder where contains bmp files, if you can see their icon that represent its icon, it means you did these steps right.

To back to the original configuration, just give Default value to shimgvw.dll,1.
(Article no: 0056)