Windows 7 I get Icons instead of pictures on Thumbnails

Anonymous

I have two programs "Cricut Design Studio" and "4D Embroidery System" both of which show the program icon on the thumbnail instead of the thumbnail picture itself. I spent 4 hours on the phone with HP Support yesterday (since my copy of Windows 7 is an OEM product) - they were unable to correct the problem. I am experiencing this same problem on my new desktop that has Windows 7 on it. I have tried all the usual fixes - eg. in folder options unchecking "Always show Icons not Thumbnails" and both checking and unchecking "Display file icon on thumbnails" - also in the Control Panel under System, Advanced System Settings, Advanced tab , Preformance settings, making sure the "Show thumbnails instead of icons" is checked.

I have XP on my old desktop computer - the program icons display the pictures on the thumbnails correctly on that computer.

I can load those files onto a jump drive, plug that jump into my Windows 7, and the files on the jump show the thumbnail pictures correctly. If I transfer those files onto the computers with Windows 7 on them, they become icons of the program again (instead of pictures of the file). In Windows 7, I have all the latest updates, and both of the programs that I can't see the pictures on the thumbnails also have the latest updates, and are completely compatible with Win 7.

This is a real problem for me because I work with these files (over 10,000 of them) daily. The many of the file names are just numbers, so without the pictures, I can't tell which file to open. Please HELP!

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Anonymous

The file icon size must be medium or large for the thumbnails to show. Small icons will only show thw generic thumbnail.

There must also be codecs installed to generate the thumbnails for the file types.

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Anonymous

In Windows Explorer,

click on Organize - Folder and Search Options - View

uncheck "Always show icons, never thumbnails"

Dave N.

MS-MVP (Mail)

Windows 7 Ultimate 64

http://download.live.com/wlmail

"ferretgirl" wrote in message

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I still get the icon instead of the picture, even when I am on large view?

Windows 7 Ultimate 64

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47 additional answers

Anonymous

2016-03-09T00:54:12+00:00

Worked like a charm. It makes me sad that computer issues are so easy, yet too numerous to know and find quickly.
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Anonymous

2016-10-11T03:48:21+00:00

I thought it would be beneficial to share my experience with this particular issue. I lost the ability to see previews of pics as well as previews of my relatively extensive library of custom icons. I'm running Windows 7 Ultimate. After trying the suggestions shared in this thread, with no luck, I took a moment and thought. Specifically, the comment made by another user sharing ideas in this thread happen to refer to the possibility of the issue being related to a codec and either the reference was that a certain codec was missing or a codec was incorrect. That otherwise vague reference resulted in me changing a few things which I'll share. Windows Live Photo Gallery was the default program for all pics as well as the default for viewing my custom icons. I right clicked one random custom icon then opened the properties dialog box. Under the General tab I saw what I already knew which was Windows Live Photo Gallery was the default. I clicked "Change" and looked at all my programs available to use as a new default.

With that as a background I'll share what specifically I have/used that is unique. A company named NCH Software has developed some wonderful programs but one in particular was the key to solving my issue. NCH developed a program called PhotoPad Photo Editor. It's a wonderful program and can do amazing things for anyone interested in doing some serious photo editing. PhotoPad's "home, single user license" is free, however, there are a FEW functional capabilities that are not available in the free edition but in my experience they include features way beyond my needs.

So I simply selected to change the default to PhotoPad and instantly all pic thumbnails and all icons were visible in windows explorer for the first time in a VERY LONG time. All that said, if you happen to be unable to fix a similar issue as so many have/are experiencing then I suggest going to www.nchsoftware.com and getting PhotoPad. I am not an employee of NCH, have no ownership in the company, have no agreement with them, and am not benefiting in any way whatsoever for recommending their product as a solution to this issue.
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