WMP and Folder.jpg being overwritten, possible solution? Options

[Vig2000]

I made little utility that creates backups, reset hs attributes and make wmp dont resize images, i will post it here later today as im currently at lunch

Excellent, evlo! Your utility will be a great help! Thank you!

[evlo]

Here it is:
basically it does what can be achieved in separate steps, probably in batch too
- add registry hack
- copy folder.jpgs as cover.jpgs (or other specified files)
- remove +h+s from folder.jpgs
i hope that config is self explanatory
http://docs.google.com/leaf?id=0B2pYn_DbRu...0OWM2&hl=en

This post has been edited by evlo: Jul 22 2010, 18:22

[djoby00]

I am win7 and WMP12 and I can not find these values in the registry
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ Software \ Microsoft \ MediaPlayer \ Preferences]
"LargeAlbumArtSize" = dword: ffffffff
"SmallAlbumArtSize" = dword: ffffffff

What to do?

This post has been edited by greynol: Dec 14 2010, 05:19

Reason for edit: TOS #10; removed French version, this is an English-only forum.

[evlo]

create them, also my little utility can create them also so you don't to mess up with regedit.

This post has been edited by evlo: Dec 14 2010, 09:53

[Roseval]

For thos who are interested in having WMP12 displaying the covers in their original size: http://social.answers.microsoft.com/Forums...1-c48008811e92/

[evlo]

Interesting, will this stop WMP form setting folder.jpg hidden?

[Loosel]

For thos who are interested in having WMP12 displaying the covers in their original size: http://social.answers.microsoft.com/Forums...1-c48008811e92/

Sorry for bumping this up, but I just had to thank you. You made my day!

[esquire415]

Also sorry to revive this thread but WMP already converted most of my album artwork to 200x200 images before I discovered this issue and I was very upset as I spent hours retrieving and resizing high-res images of my album artwork to my old computer. I've upgraded my computer and it defaulted to the WMP12 player (have not downloaded iTunes yet) so I thought I used it to check it out but then it started the conversion without my permission! And I haven't backed up in a while. I immediately uninstalled (turn off) Windows Media Player and installed iTunes. This problem lead me to this forum.

Anyway, perhaps there is a workaround to revert my Folder.jpg images back to 500x500 by tweaking the value in the registry key "LargeAlbumArtSize" and then run WMP12 again to resize the images to a higher resolution?

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\MediaPlayer\Preferences]
"LargeAlbumArtSize"=dword:00000500
"SmallAlbumArtSize"=dword:ffffffff

Will this work? I read from another forum that the following will create 600x600 album art cover but I don't see the logic.

[HKEYCURRENTUSER\Software\Microsoft\MediaPlayer\Preferences]
“LargeAlbumArtSize”=dword:00000258
“SmallAlbumArtSize”=dword:00000258

I'm hating Microsoft right now!

[cw-kid]

I just joined this forum to say thank you for posting this!!

I can confirm it does work and it seems to totally stop WMP from overwriting your Folder.jpg files with crappy low-res 200x200 versions.

I recently after editing the registry with your hack, embedded all my hi-res 600x600 Folder.jpg images in to all my music files (I never embedded them previously because I knew WMP would then start attacking my Folder.jpg files), I did it rather quickly using the Actions Import Cover feature of MP3Tag, would have taken weeks manually!

However today I have noticed in some albums folders, not all of them, just seems random in some album folders, there are files like these now being created:

AlbumArt_{E6043A2C-BBEB-49C5-BCF0-5259B6332C34}_Large.jpg
AlbumArt_{E6043A2C-BBEB-49C5-BCF0-5259B6332C34}_Small.jpg

These files were not there previously and have created dates of yesterday. The large ones are 200x200 the small ones are 75x75

I have double checked several Folder.jpg files and they have remained untouched at 600x600 and not down-res to 200x200 this is good news! However this creation of these Large / Small jpg files is an annoying side affect that I would like to be able to stop them being created all together, but not sure how ?

Thanks

There are many documented instances of WMP overwriting folder.jpg with a 200x200 version when adding mp3 files to the WMP library.

some examples:
http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index....=50810&st=0
http://www.neowin.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=648437
http://www.neowin.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=551685
http://www.neowin.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=767036
http://www.vistaheads.com/forums/microsoft...load-issue.html

you can google "wmp folder.jpg overwritten" for others...

anyway, there was a key posted in antother thread that after playing with i think i may have found the answer. i posted this in one of the above threads, but it was for Windows 7 beta so i don't know if it will be missed. anyway...

if you add the below values it appears that WMP will NOT generate or resize new folder.jpg OR AlbumArtSmall.jpg files. IF folder.jpg (or AlbumArtSmall) already exist(s), it does not resize it but mearly sets the HIDDEN and SYSTEM attributes. so if you have a folder.jpg and/or an albumartsmall.jpg file at 1500x1500, it will leave them alone (except for hiding them...).

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\MediaPlayer\Preferences]
"LargeAlbumArtSize"=dword:ffffffff
"SmallAlbumArtSize"=dword:ffffffff

can anyone out there verify this? i tired with a brand new database and a few albums. a quick outside verification would be great. thanks.

obviously all the automatic updating features are turned off in WMP and Media Center as well. i have not tested with them on.