How to Turn Preview Thumbnails On or Off in Windows Explorer in Vista
| 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. |  |
| 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. |  |
| 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. |  |
| 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. |  |
RELATED LINKS:
- 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
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 |
| This method is only available for the Vista Business, Ultimate, and Enterprise editions. See Method Four below for the Vista Basic and Home Premium editions. | |
1. Open the Local Group Policy Editor.
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 onProperties. (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: |
|---|
| Through the Registry |
| This will work for all Vista versions. | |
Through a Download:
1. To Disable Windows Explorer Thumbnails -
A) Click on the download button below to download the
Disable_Explorer_Thumbnails.reg file.B) Go to step 3.
2. To Enable Windows Explorer Thumbnails -
A) Click on the download button below to download the
Enable_Explorer_Thumbnails.reg file.
3. Click on Save, and save the .reg file to the Desktop.
4. Right click on the .reg file (on Desktop) and click on Merge.
5. Click on the Run button in the Security Warning pop-up.
6. Click on Continue (UAC), Yes, and then OK when prompted.
7. When done, you can delete the .reg file (on Desktop).
8. Log off and log on, or restart the computer to apply changes.
The Manual Way:
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 andDWORD (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 onDelete. (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.
