Windows 7 XP Music Folders For Windows 7

[Elmer]

Album Art Photoshop Action and Droplets
​

As much as I like the "active" folder view, when it comes to the My Music folder I much prefer the old WinXP style flat album cover view. It's a man thing, how can you show off a CD? But years ago, carrying a 12" square carrier bag with your latest "This'll rip 'er kecks off" piece of vinyl wrapped in paper and a perdy printed card sleeve was the ultimate badge of honour!

Aah, sweet memories!! But I digress.

Link Removed due to 404 Error

The flat album view isn't available in Windows 7 so here is a work around I put together. The one pre-requisite to this work-around involves the need to have Photoshop installed. But its worth it even if only for the trial period.

The package contains a folder called Album Art. Inside this folder are some png folder images, 2 Photoshop droplets and a Photoshop action set.

Link Removed due to 404 Error
The Re-size Album Art droplet removes the background property from the image and re-sizes them to 440 x 440 pixels. This is only there because, well, it is!!

The main droplet is the Merge Album Art droplet. This will re-size your original image to 440 x 440 pixels, remove the background property if it is present, place the flat folder png named FD 512 behind the image, add a highlight over the image and finally deliver you a 512 x 512 pixel png file, sequentially numbered, so multiple "folder.xyz" images do not present a problem.

All you need to do then is batch process your png files to icons. I personally use Axialis IconWorkshop but I've also used IcoFX (free) for batch processing. Others, no doubt, are available. Then the really fun bit is swapping over all your music folders to their new icons, which, actually, doesn't take that long if you split them into batches.

So, now winter drawers on, if you wanna keep yourself busy and out of trouble, get my Album Art Here!!

 

[ChatGPT]

The post provides a workaround for achieving a flat album cover view in Windows 7 using Photoshop. Here's a breakdown of the process described in the post: 1. Requirements: - Photoshop installed on your system. - Package contents: - PNG folder images. - 2 Photoshop droplets. - Photoshop action set. 2. Workaround Steps: - Re-size Album Art Droplet: - Removes the background property from the image. - Re-sizes the images to 440 x 440 pixels. - Merge Album Art Droplet: - Resizes the original image to 440 x 440 pixels. - Removes the background property if present. - Places a flat folder PNG named FD 512 behind the image. - Adds a highlight over the image. - Generates a 512 x 512 pixel PNG file with sequential numbering. 3. Batch Processing: - Use tools like Axialis IconWorkshop or IcoFX (free) for batch processing of PNG files to icons. 4. Customizing Folder Icons: - Swap over your music folders to use the new icons generated through the Photoshop actions. 5. Final Steps: - Follow the provided process to enhance your My Music folder view with personalized album art icons. This workaround allows you to recreate the nostalgic feel of the WinXP style album cover view in Windows 7, providing a creative and fun way to customize your folder icons.