dec Picasa Thumbnail Database Viewer

What is dec Picasa Thumbnail Database Viewer?

Picasa is gradually becoming popular with users thanks to the efforts of Google that bought it from Idealab in 2004. More and more people turn to Picasa as their program of choice for managing home photo archives for it has many advantages, such as a user-friendly interface, rich choice of features, integration with Blogger, Gmail, YouTube and Google Earth.

Starting with the earliest versions, Picasa comes with its own proprietary centralized database of thumbnails, which, depending on the version, may consist of 32 to 58 files. The content of the database cannot be viewed using standard tools.

The main files of the thumbnail database have different names but their purpose is the same, regardless of the Picasa version:

Picasa version	2	3
Main index file	thumbindex.tid	thumbindex.db
Extra index files	index-bigthumbs.db index-previews.db index-thumbs.db index-thumbs2.db	bigthumbs_index.db previews_index.db thumbs_index.db thumbs2_index.db
Files with thumbnails	bigthumbs.db previews.db thumbs.db thumbs2.db	bigthumbs_0.db previews_0.db thumbs_0.db thumbs2_0.db

The latest versions of Picasa save thumbnails to the database with sizes up to 640x640 pixels. So, the content of the thumbnail database can be used to recover lost images in fairly good quality. Forensic experts can also take advantage of this peculiarity. They can find quality copies of images in the computer during a forensic examination of Picasa databases.

dec Picasa Thumbnail Database Viewer is a unique software application designed to help the user view Picasa thumbnail databases both in versions 2 and 3. Using this tool, you can easily find, view, analyze and create reports on database content. The user does not need any knowledge of the internal structure of such files, their location in a particular version of Picasa – the program can find, recognize, decode and display these files on its own. The only thing the user needs to do is to specify a disk or disks where to run a search.

dec Picasa Thumbnail Database Viewer relies on low level reading of file formats, which ensures that no modification of examined data will occur. Unlike similar tools, the program can decode broken files that were recovered by external utilities after deletion. Partial recovery is ensured in most situations. The program allows decoding even single files, if all other files cannot be recovered.

Key features

• Support for decoding thumbnail databases of all versions of Picasa

  The program features full support for thumbnail databases of all versions of Picasa. It’s also possible to decode single files from the database.

• Portable

  The user can run program from any device, including a removable one. The program is portable and does not require any frameworks or special libraries to do its job.

• Easy file search

  Find any file in a snap. The user does not need to search for files manually. The program can handle the search job automatically, saving the user time and efforts.

• Save search results

  The list of found files can be saved for future reference. Saved results let the user quickly open the files that have been found earlier without having to run a search again.

• Reports

  The program creates detailed reports on content of found files in HTML.

• Export

  The program lets the user save to a data storage device any information, such as found image thumbnails, as well as metadata associated with thumbnails.

• Tabbed interface

  The user can open additional tabs, which makes it easier and more convenient to analyze data.

• Markers

  With markers, the user can easily mark important information and get back to it later.

• Support for external applications

  The user can open found images in external applications associated with graphic files to edit images further – make them bigger, correct color and perform other operations.

• Clipboard

  The program allows the user to copy to clipboard any information, such as names of found files, found image thumbnails, metadata associated with thumbnails. Copied data can be pasted to other documents.

Screenshots

dec Picasa Thumbnail Database Viewer main window

FAQ

Q) I bought the program and got the license key. What do I need to do with the key to activate the program?
A) Copy and paste the file of the key to the directory that contains the executable file. Once launched, the program detects the key and removes the limitation of the demo mode. Attention! If the key is deleted from the directory, the program downgrades to the demo mode automatically.

Q) I renamed the program from decPicasaViewer.exe to PicasaViewer.exe, and now it won’t detect the key.
A) Rename the key file from decPicasaViewer.xkey to PicasaViewer.xkey.

Q) I want to save the program to CD. How do I do it properly?
A) When you record the program to CD, it is important that the folder should contain the executable file, program key and an empty file with the name of the executable file and extension .config. The latter is necessary to disable the appearance of the License Agreement on program launch.

Q) The program won’t open or find thumbnail cache files, though it claims to decode them. I know for sure I have thumbnail cache files on my hard disk.
A) This may happen because you do not have access rights to these files due to specific security policies of your operating system. For example, it often occurs in Windows Vista and Windows Seven. Try running the program with administrator rights.

Q) It takes too long to open some files with the program. What’s the reason for it?
A) To decode files, the program uses algorithms that search for deleted data, letting users find data within files, even if there are no links to them in the index file. Though it takes long to process data, the algorithm allows extracting maximum information from a file.

List of decoded formats

	Picasa 2 © Google, Inc.	thumbindex.tid index-bigthumbs.db bigthumbs.db index-previews.db previews.db index-thumbs.db Thumbs.db index-thumbs2.db thumbs2.db
	Picasa 3 © Google, Inc.	thumbindex.db bigthumbs_index.db bigthumbs_0.db previews_index.db previews_0.db thumbs_index.db thumbs_0.db thumbs2_index.db thumbs2_0.db

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