Thumbnails in Windows Explorer

How to Turn Preview Thumbnails On or Off in Windows Explorer in Vista​

   Information

This will show you how to turn file and folder preview thumbnails on or off in all Windows Explorer windows. A thumbnail is a reduced image of a graphic, used to display multiple images at once.

   Note

You will need to click on View or Views, on Windows Explorer window Menu bar, and have it set to either Medium Icons, Large Icons, or Extra Large Icons to see a thumbnail preview of the file image as the icon.

   Tip

If thumbnails will still not show on the file icon even with thumbnails turned on from below, then check to make sure that Windows Photo Gallery is set as the default program with all of it's associations set to it.

   Warning

Thumbnails can cause navigating through a Windows Explorer window to be to slow for you while your waiting for the thumbnails to load if there is a lot of image files. Turning the thumbnails off can speed up how fast a Windows Explorer window will open.

EXAMPLE: Thumbnails On

​

​

EXAMPLE: Thumbnails Off

​

​

METHOD ONE

Through Folder Options

1. Open Folder Options.​

​

2. Click on the View tab. (See screenshot below)​

​

​

3. To Turn OFF Folder and File Preview Thumbnails ​

A) Check Always show icons, never thumbnails. (See screenshot above)​

​

B) Go to step 5.​

4. To Turn ON Folder and File Preview Thumbnails​

A) Uncheck Always show icons, never thumbnails. (See screenshot below step 2)​

5. Click on OK. (See screenshot below step 2)​

​

METHOD TWO

Through Performance Options

1. Open Visual Effects Performance Options.​

​

2. Click on the Visual Effects tab. (See screenshot below)​

​

​

3. To Turn OFF Folder and File Preview Thumbnails​

A) Uncheck Show thumbnails instead of icons. (See screenshot above)​

​

B) Go to step 5.​

4. To Turn ON Folder and File Preview Thumbnails ​

A) Check Show thumbnails instead of icons. (See screenshot below step 2)​

5. Click on OK. (See screenshot below step 2)​

​

METHOD THREE

Through the Local Group Policy Editor

NOTE: This method is only available for the Vista Business, Ultimate, and Enterprise editions. See Method Four or Method Five below for the Vista Basic and Home Premium editions.

1. Open the all users, specific users or groups, or all users except administrators Local Group Policy Editor for how you want this policy applied.​

​

2. In the left pane, click on User Configuration, Administrative Templates, Windows Components, and Windows Explorer. (See screenshot below)​

​

​

3. In the right pane, right click on Turn off the display of thumbnails and only display icon and click on Properties. (See screenshot above)​

​

4. To Enable Windows ExplorerThumbnails​

A) Select (dot) Disabled or Not Configured and click on OK. (See screenshot below step 5A)​

​

B) Go to step 6.​

5. To Disable Windows Explorer Thumbnails​

A) Select (dot) Enabled and click on OK.​

​

​

6. Close the Local Group Policy Editor window. Your done.​

​

METHOD FOUR

Using a REG File Download

NOTE: This will work for all Vista versions.

1. To Disable Windows Explorer Thumbnails​

​

A) Click on the Download button below to download the file below.​

​

Disable_Explorer_Thumbnails.reg​

​

​

B) Go to step 3.​

2. To Enable Windows Explorer Thumbnails​

​

A) Click on the Download button below to download the file below.​

​

Enable_Explorer_Thumbnails.reg​

​

​

3. Click on Save, and save the .reg file to the Desktop.​

​

4. Right click on the downloaded .reg file and click on Merge.​

​

5. Click on Run, Continue (UAC), Yes, and then OK when prompted.​

​

6. When done, you can delete the .reg file if you like.​

​

7. Log off and log on, or restart the computer to apply changes.​

​

METHOD FIVE

Manually in Registry Editor

NOTE: This will work for all Vista versions.

1. Open the Start Menu.​

​

2. In the white line (Start Search) area, type regedit and press Enter.​

​

3. Click on the Continue button in the UAC prompt.​

​

4. In regedit, go to: (See screenshot below)​

​

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer​

​

​

]​

5. To Disable Windows Explorer Thumbnails​

​

A) In the right pane of Explorer, right click on a empty area and click on New and DWORD (32-bit) Value and type DisableThumbnails and press Enter. (See screenshot below)​

​

B) Right click on DisableThumbnails and click on Modify.​

​

​

C) Type 1 and click on OK. (See screenshot below)​

​

​

D) The registry will now look like this. (See screenshot below)​

​

​

E) Go to step 7.​

6. To Enable Windows Explorer Thumbnails​

​

A) In the right pane of Explorer, right click on DisableThumbnails and click on Delete. (See screenshot above)​

​

B) Click on Yes to confirm deletion.​

7. Close regedit.​

​

8. Log off and log on, or restart the computer to apply changes.​

​

That's it,
Shawn

Related Tutorials

---

• How to Clear the Thumbnail Cache in Vista
• How to Change a Folder Preview Picture in Vista
• How to Turn Open Window Thumbnail Previews On or Off for the Taskbar in Vista
• How to Enable or Disable the Taskbar Thumbnail Previews in Vista
• How to Change the Visual Effects Options for Appearance and Performance in Vista
• How to Rebuild the Icon Cache in Vista
• How to Turn the Preview Pane On or Off in Vista
• How to Change the Border for Thumbnail Previews in Vista
• How to Add "Enable/Disable Thumbnails" to Context Menu in Vista and Windows 7

 

[fredhoward]

Thanks, Shawn, but that proves my point. In the Screenie you sent me, "preview" simply shows a blank Icon of the file and a text description of the file's contents. In XP I would see a photographic miniature of the Web page.
Still, I appreciate all of your help in this matter and the genius of the Internet. You in Texas and me in Sydney, OZ, able to communicate in seconds is still a wonder to me. Give my regards to "George" if you see him !
Thanks again, Shawn.
Fred

 

[Brink]

No problem Fred. It is amazing. Just imagine what it will be like when everything is using fiber optics.

 

[fredhoward]

Shawn,
I've been at cross purposes with you over the preview pane in IE 7. I installed Firefox and it immediately brought up a very large preview of the pages of that Nikon Camera review as soon as I hovered the cursor over the page !
I then went back to IE7 and tried it. No go, but I then remembered the advice re "Organize/Layout/Preview pane". That brought up a black panel on the right and I hadn't realised that it had scroll bars for left/right and up/down. As soon as I did and expanded it, there was the preview of the whole page ! Now we are on the same wavelength and I'm a lot happier. I still don't get thumbs of the whole contents of all the pages but the response to hovering the cursor is immediate.
Winston Churchill said that America and Great Britain are two great Countries seperated by a common language ! I think that's what has happened here. These two
screenies explain it better. The main thing is that I now see what you were trying to get across to me and I hope this may help others with the same problem. It took that Firefox install though for me to realise what I was missing.
Thanks for everything, Shawn. I live in OZ but come from London, hence the Winston reference.
Fred

 

[Brink]

Your welcome Fred. I'm happy to hear that you got it working. I love the quote.

 

[Ketchup]

Thread

Thanks for the steps discribed in the captioned, which are very good to follow. Unforunatelly none did help my problem.
I tried them ALL but none did solve the problem. In fact if i open a folder with pictures (.jpeg) the thumbnails are shown quickly but then overwritten by the generic icon.

It might be that i am a bit low on RAM which i plan to increase when i am back in the country in two weeks.

Thanks anyway for your work and maybe my reply helps somehow to uncover other problems.

 

[Brink]

Hello Ketchup, and welcome to Vista Forums.

You might double check to see if you have Windows Photo Gallery set as the default program with all of it's associations set for it.

http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/83196-default-programs-program-default-associations.html

Hope this helps,
Shawn

 

[JohnSw]

Thanks to your info, I was able to solve much of my thumbnail problem. I tried all methods, to no avail, until I ran your suggested SFC / SCANNOW. Apparently problems were found. I can now see thumbnails for jpg files that reside on my PC. I do have one remaining problem.
I have the majority of my pics on an HP Media Vault (NAS). I can't see the thumbnails for those pics when I explore to the pic folder on this networked drive. I'm not certain of the operating system on this NAS, but I believe it is a neutered version of Windows Home Server.
Should I be able to see thumbnails on an external drive controlled by Windows Home Server?
Input on this question, and on this problem in particular, would be greatly appreciated.
confused:

 

[Brink]

Hello John, and welcome to Vista Forums.

Yes, you should see thumbnails of the images in a network folder while viewing from within Vista and you have the icon view set to at least "Medium icons".