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SewIconz is software for viewing the contents of embroidery files and certain image files (jpeg, gif) as icons from within Windows Explorer©. With SewIconz, the stitch pattern contained in embroidery files and some cross-stitch files will appear as icons as you scroll through your Windows folders. Information about the number of stitches, colors and pattern size (in either mm. or in.) will appear as your cursor moves over the icons. You may download the user manual for a more detailed explanation of all the features of SewIconz.

Download Link (v1.23)	Order Information
SewIconz (Win98,XP), SewIconz (VISTA) DEMO	Free for 7 days
a SewIconz (Win98,XP), SewIconz (VISTA) Retail	a (Download - $20) (Mail CD - $28)
SewIconz (Win98,XP), SewIconz (VISTA) Update	No Charge

If icons fail to appear after you have installed SewIconz and selected the file types to iconize, then you may have to delete the file association for that file type. Then reselect the file type again from the SewIconz desktop icon, and finally re-associate the file type with your application.

For example, suppose that PES files are not iconized. Download the following compressed file PES_VISTA.zip and save it  (do NOT run it from this website) to your hard drive. Unzip the file PES_VISTA.reg and double-click it. Then double-click the SewIconz desktop icon, reselect the file types to be iconized, click "OK" and now the icons for PES files will appear.

You may edit the text file PES_VISTA.reg by replacing all occurences of "pes" with "ext", where "ext" is the extension that is not iconized after installing SewIconz. Save the file - NOT as a text file, but as a "reg" file - with the name EXT_VISTA.reg, double click it and then reselect the file type in SewIconz.

Setting up and Using SewIconz

SewIconz is unlike our other software, in that after the initial installation and setup, it requires no further user interact to perform its tasks. It is a class of software known as icon handlers, which means it interacts with the Windows© Operating System rather than directly with the user.

Once SewIconz is installed, you need to configure it by double-clicking its desktop icon to select the file types to iconize. This will open the setup dialog shown in the figure below. The setup dialog contains lists of embroidery and graphics file extensions (types) that you select to be handled (iconized) by SewIconz. Once you've clicked on the types you want (hold down the Ctrl key to select multiple types), press the "OK" button to complete the Setup. This is the last time you need to interact with the software - until you want to change the types of embroidery and graphics files to iconize or to uninstall the application.

SewIconz Setup dialog

In addition to the embroidery file types handled by SewWhat!, SewIconz will also allow you to view Janome jan files and Viking krz cross stitch and PCStitch pat cross stitch files. Certain types of graphics files can also be viewed with SewIconz: Wings XP ngs, Corel draw, png, gif, and jpg files. Graphics formats to iconize should be carefully selected since rendering some of them (especially jpg) can sometimes dramatically decrease the responsiveness of your computer. VISTA users should not choose jpg format from the SewIconz graphics list, since that type is handled by native VISTA code.

SewIconz is a stand-alone application that does not require the installation of any of our other products to run. A view of a Windows folder, with SewIconz installed, is shown below. When your mouse is dragged over the file icon, SewIconz will automatically display fly-over information about the number of stitches, color changes and pattern size.

Windows Explorer Icon view with SewIconz installed

To use SewIconz,  you must open a folder (using Windows Explorer) on your hard drive, CD, or removable drive, that contains embroidery files. You will now see icon images of the stitch patterns contained in each file. Note: you may have to reboot once after the initial setup. 

When the DEMO period expires, or for any other reason you wish to disable the SewIconz icon-handler, just double-click its desktop icon and click the "Disable SewIconz" button. This will return the handling of your embroidery icons (by Windows Explorer®) to the state before SewIconz was installed. It is recommended that you follow this procedure if you are installing the retail version of SewIconz after a previous installation of the DEMO.

Windows 95, 98, ME, NT, XP, Windows 2000 and VISTA. At least 320 kB of free space is required to install the program and help files.