14 DAY TRIAL // Many argued about Vista's maturity and with its second service pack knocking heavily on the door there are still voices saying that the operating system has yet to prove its value in order to convince the most reluctant of users into adopting it. In every software it's the little things and how well they function that matter and with the operating systems things are pretty much the same.
Vista did not implement functional “trivialities” as some would say, such as the possibility to organize the windows in the taskbar yourself or even the icons in the system tray. But Microsoft integrated thumb preview for taskbar items at hovering the mouse pointer over them, giving you a hint of what's going on. Of course, the feature is available for those editions of Vista that come with Aero enabled (Business, Home Premium and Ultimate). However, they failed to make this function more flexible and provide the possibility to handle the preview thumb's size on your own.
No problem, as third-party software jumps to the rescue under the form of Vista Thumbnail Sizer, a freebie designed to give you free hand in selecting the dimensions of the thumbnail, making it larger or smaller, as you wish. No installation is required for the app and it can be run perfectly well from a removable device.
There is little to say about the interface as it is almost inexistent, save for the configuration panel, which lets you control the size of the taskbar window preview thumbnail and enable fade-in animation. The size of the preview can be altered from zero (which is an Aero-styled circle) to as far as the resolution can take.
The fade-in slider can be moved within a second's interval from 10 to 1000 milliseconds. An additional option available in the software is enabling its launch with Windows so that it is active at all times. The size of the thumb preview can be adjusted both vertically and horizontally. At a first preview of the options they may seem to malfunction.
But it all depends on the type of the window in the taskbar. If the window is tall (such as an instant messenger's contact list) then the height slide will become active. If we're dealing with a rather proportionate rectangular window, then the width settings enter into force. Our tests revealed that you can actually set the width slide and the thumbnail will adjust the aspect ratio automatically.
The fade-in effect does its job properly offering you a nice come-out-of-the blur transition. In order to fully enjoy the issue I suggest adjusting the slider to the max. But for impatient persons disabling the function altogether is recommended.
It all sounds pretty good up to now, but toying around with the application showed its serious need for revision. Vista Thumbnail Sizer is supposed to function in the background the moment you simply close the window and terminate its process once the interface Quit button is pressed. You'd think that quitting the application would revert the changes made to the registry, but these continue to be in effect until explorer is restarted.
The application has been around for quite a while and unfortunately the issues have not been solved yet. Hopefully, the developer will bring the program in good shape as it offers a great view of the windows in the taskbar, allowing you to see full lines and actually understand in a glance what it is all about in that specific window.
As for the quality of the images, it's all great. They do not equal the quality of a real window but everything is clear without having to shift window focus in order to distinguish the details.
What is great about Vista Thumbnail Sizer is that it functions in the background without affecting user activity. During our testing resource usage was low (about 500KB of RAM). More than this, there is absolutely no trace of the application on the system as there is no system tray icon or anything else to blow its cover. Another plus is the fact that the moment you make any change to the width, height or fade-in values you benefit from instant preview to check out how the new adjustments work for you.
Although it is a small application it comes with bugs, which fortunately can be easily eliminated in order to turn Vista Thumbnail Sizer into a speckless application.
The Good
The application can be set to start with Windows with a click of a button directly from the application window.
The Bad
It would be nice to have control on both width and height of the preview window.
The Truth
The quality of the image is quite good if you are not seeking that crispy-sharpish look of a regular window. Plus, on top of it all, it can work from a removable drive quite well.
However, there is the minor issue of application quitting and settings still being active to be worked out.
Here are some snapshots of the application in action:
