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                TransClear - Thumbnail handler for Lxf-files   
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                     Copyright © 2015 Henrik Persson
       (Parts taken from SharpShell are Copyright © 2014 Dave Kerr)        

- Disclaimer & License ------------------------------------------------------
THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED 'AS-IS', WITHOUT ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTY. 
IN NO EVENT WILL THE AUTHOR BE HELD LIABLE FOR ANY DAMAGES ARISING FROM THE 
USE OF THIS SOFTWARE.

Permission is granted to anyone to use this software for any purpose, 
including commercial applications, and to alter it and redistribute it 
freely, subject to the following restrictions:

- The origin of this software must not be misrepresented; you must not claim 
  that you wrote the original software.

- Altered versions must be plainly marked as such, and must not be 
  misrepresented as being the original software.


- About ---------------------------------------------------------------------
TransClear is a Thumbnail handler for Lxf-files made for Windows (Vista, 7, 
8 and 8.1). It will replace the normal LDD-icon for Lxf-file in Windows with 
the image of its contents. TransClear does not generate the image itself, it 
simply uses an already generated image that can be found in the Lxf-file. 
This image is generated by LDD when you save the Lxf-file. This means that 
TransClear has no control over how the image looks (other than its size). 
(Note that Windows will only show thumbnails for files when the correct 
views are chosen in the Explorer window)

The project (the Thumbnail handler and the installer) is derived from 
SharpShell source code (Link below). The Handler was first constructed with 
mostly Sharpshell code. After I got it working I then cut out everything I 
didn't need and rewrote anything I didn't like. I also had to make a few 
improvements to their IStream wrapper (ComStream.cs). It could not handle 
calls to the Read method with the offset parameter set to anything other 
than zero and it did not release the IStream object when it was done with 
it. The first problem meant that the wrapper wouldn't work with built in 
.net zip-file reader. The other problem would prevent a user from editing, 
moving and deleting a Lxf-file for a minute or more after the Thumbnail was 
generated. The Installer was derived from SharpShell code in a similar way.


- Requirements --------------------------------------------------------------
  - Windows Vista, 7, 8 or 8.1
  - .NET Framework 4.5


- Installing ----------------------------------------------------------------
Start with creating a system restore point for Windows (as you always should 
before executing strange programs downloaded from the Internet ;) )

After that you will only need to execute Installer.exe and click the big 
button that is marked "Install". TransClear should now be loaded into the 
memory and be used every time the shell asks for a thumbnail for an lxf-
file. The handler will stop working if you change the location of the 
TransClear files. If you want to move them, uninstall TransClear first and 
then install TransClear again after the move.

You might run into the problem that Windows won't generate any thumbnail for 
your old Lxf-files. This is because Windows will save thumbnails for all 
files even if a thumbnail handler is missing. This means that some Lxf-file 
might not get a new thumbnail until they have been modified or after the 
thumbnail cache has been cleared (You can google how to do this). 

If you don't see any thumbnails for any files (including non Lxf-file), your 
Windows might be configured to not generate them at all (This you can also 
google how to change).


- Known Issues -----------------------------------------------------------------
For some reason I can't get thumbnails to show consistently in the "Open 
File"-dialog window for LDD. Very annoying.


- Contact information and links ------------------------------------------------
E-mail: 
  henrik@zwomp.com

SharpShell: 
  https://sharpshell.codeplex.com/


- Release history --------------------------------------------------------------
1.0 First public release. 