svgesus — SVG Jesus

Windows SVG thumbnail shell extension (D + NanoSVG). Implements COM IThumbnailProvider + IInitializeWithStream.

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Table of Contents

1. About The Project
   • Built With
2. Getting Started
3. Usage
4. Contributing
5. License
6. Contact

About The Project

Thread-safe thumbnail provider designed so Windows can cache SVG previews consistently. Rasterization uses NanoSVG (C); the shell extension is written in D.

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Built With

• Shell extension — (dmd / ldc)
• Rasterization — (C)
• Toolchain — Visual Studio Build Tools (cl)

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Getting Started

Prerequisites

• Windows 10/11 x64
• D compiler (dmd or ldc)
• Visual Studio Build Tools with cl in PATH
• Run once: scripts/fetch_nanosvg.ps1 to download NanoSVG headers

Optional Build Tools install:

winget install --id Microsoft.VisualStudio.2022.BuildTools -e

Build

.\scripts\fetch_nanosvg.ps1
dub build
# Optional:
.\scripts\build_dmd.ps1
.\scripts\build_llvm.ps1

Output: bin/svgesus.dll.

Install (manual)

1. Copy bin/svgesus.dll to a permanent location (e.g. C:\Program Files\svgesus\svgesus.dll).
2. Run as Administrator: regsvr32 "C:\Program Files\svgesus\svgesus.dll".
3. Restart Explorer or log off and back on.

Uninstall: regsvr32 /u "C:\Program Files\svgesus\svgesus.dll" (as Admin).

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Usage

After registration, SVG files should show thumbnails in Explorer. If caching fails:

• Handler may be failing intermittently (Explorer skips cache).
• OneDrive Files On-Demand can block local thumbnail generation.
• Folder Options → View → ensure “Always show icons, never thumbnails” is unchecked.

Registered with DisableProcessIsolation = 1 for in-process reliability.

See docs/LANGUAGE_CHOICE.adoc for language/design notes.

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Contributing

Fork, branch, and open a pull request.

Top contributors

For per-person profile links, prefer all-contributors.

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Changelog

See CHANGELOG.md for the project history.

License

MIT.

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Contact

Ryan Johnson — @amdphreak

Project Link: https://github.com/AMDphreak/svgesus

Site: https://ryanjohnson.dev

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