Thumbnails blank or fuzzy

[xiz]

I have been looking everywhere and can't seem to find an answer to why some of my thumbnails are blank or fuzzy. For Example: On my Desktop it will say the folder name then above it a transparent square.

If I go into a folder I am able to see tile previews but when I switch to thumbnail mode, they get fuzzy.

Thanks for the help

 

[Thao]

Hi xiz, welcome to the Vista Forums.

I've never personally had this problem before, but here are some steps to try to fix this little problem.

1) Go to Start Menu > Control Panel > Folder Options
2) Click the View tab
3) Look under advanced settings check the status of “Always show icons, never thumbnails”. This one will need to be unchecked to see thumbnails, especially in the Desktop Background chooser.

Alternatively, if the solution above doesn't work, you may want to try doing an Install Repair, where it allows you to repair any corrupt files. Make sure you have your Vista DVD handy! Also, be sure to uninstall Service Pack 1 first if you do have it installed.

To Uninstall SP1:

1) Go to Start Menu > Control Panel > Programs and Features (or go to Run > Appwiz.cpl)
2) Click "View installed updates".
3) Click Service Pack for Microsoft Windows (KB936330), and then click Uninstall.
4) Follow the onscreen instructions

Good luck, hope this helps!

 

[xiz]

Thanks for the help Thao,

I uninstalled SP1 and booted to the Vista DVD. Went through the options and when I got to the 'What time of installation do you want?' screen, I was unable to choose 'Upgrade'. It said that I should launch the repair tool in windows. I looked around and can't seem to find it..Do you know where it may be?

 

[MrNeeds]

in the start search bar on start menu, type system restore. open and restore.

 

[Thao]

Xiz, would you mind trying this?

I wouldn't recommend performing a System Restore unless you have to.

 

[SgtBaxter]

Have you considered the possibility there may not really be a problem at all? You may simply be viewing older files that don't have high resolution icons associated with them. I noticed you said it's not all files and folders, just some.

This "problem" was pretty prevalent in OS X when it was first introduced and went to the larger 128x128 icons, and everything previously had been 32x32. Suddenly all those older icons looked fuzzy if you had your icon sizes set to larger sizes. Now that the OS is mature those old icons are few and far between and there's no longer an issue, but that's not the case yet with Vista.

When you say the preview icons are sharp, but then go to thumbnails and they're blurry, that leads me to believe what I described is what is happening. Don't waste your time doing a repair install, that's always the last (and lazy) resort.

 

[xiz]

Hey Everybody.
Thao I tried a system restore and it failed weirdly enough..it gave me that IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL bsod a few times before I managed to stop it.

Tried the System File Checker with the sfc/scannow command but still, to no avail.

SgtBaxter, I also forgot to mention that I could see all of my Thumbnails and such before but that some disappeared after a significant malware removal.
For ex: I open up 'Pictures' see all the folder thumbnail icons with their names, but no preview of what is in inside of them. When I double click on any folder I see blank squares in the Large Icons view with just the file names.