Hello Michael,
If I recall correctly you are using one of the Windows operating systems. I'll assume that you don't wish to use the command tool (cmd.exe) or Powershell (powershell.exe). I'll also assume that viewing the contents of a very limited number of files within the contents of each folder is sufficient to allow you to reorganize or cull the content.
Searching through multiple directories (folders) of .tiff files generated for input into Zerene Stacker has been greatly expedited for me by the following procedure. You will likely have to modify it depending on how you have elected to archive the input to and output of Zerene Stacker.
1. Set each directory to list or detail view. As you have noticed windows renders .tiff file icons too slowly to be useful. Worse, Windows expects you to wait until it has rendered all such icons concerned. Then if the .tiff files have been compressed decompress them or the package that contains them. If storage constraints are a factor limit this to something reasonable- say twenty directories each containing the entire contents of a stack at a time.
2. The built in Windows search function that is used by almost all software, both Microsoft and third party, is itself very slow. For much quicker resutts use a search tool such as Ultra Search that works with the master file table
https://www.jam-software.com/ultrasearch_professional (This is a 30 day trial, purchase, if desired, costs about $30.) I use an old version of this tool that cannot render previews, I assume that the current version can also do this.
3. From the results of this search it's possible to open any specific image directly in the tool of your choice thus avoiding waiting for windows to render an icon.
4. It might be useful to you, at a reasonable cost in time, to know that Ultra Search can be set to produce results that contain only specific metadata. For example as you have (or had) multiple copies of a specific lens (the CV 125) and
if you have used exiftool to record the serial number of the lens used to make those images it's possible to search for only those images that contain a specific serial number.
Bob
fixed dysfunctional link
