Pictures do not display as thumbnail preview

Anonymous
2010-02-03T09:23:47+00:00

In Windows 7, I can't get pictures to show as thumbnail previews. I've tried three different methods suggested on this site. Why is this so difficult?__

The three methods I've tried are as follows:

1.    Open the folder in Windows Explorer and click the down arrow next to Views at the top.  Choose Medium icons and see if the thumbnails start working again.

2.    If not, click on Organize, then Folder and Search Options.  Click the View tab.  Make sure that "Always show icons, never thumbnails" does not have a check mark next to it.

3.    Open Control Panel. (Classic View). Click on the System icon. Click on the advanced system settings link. Under Performance, click on the Settings button. In the Visual Effects tab, Check "Show thumbnails instead of icons.”

Windows for home | Previous Windows versions | Music, photos, and video

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Anonymous
2010-08-16T19:59:31+00:00

Not sure where these answers were going but to simply make your pictures show in thumbnail mode in win7 simply open your pictures folder, click tools, folder options, view, then uncheck "Always show icons, never thumbnails"

Don't forget to hit apply!

That should do it.

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Anonymous
2010-10-30T14:32:38+00:00

Click on the Start button, go to Control Panel.  In Control Panel select System.  From the System window select Advanced system settings.  Select Performance settings.  Be sure the box Show thumbnails instead of icons is checked.

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Anonymous
2010-02-04T05:02:06+00:00

Hi RRWilcox,

You may try the following steps and check whether you can get thumbnail previews.

  1. Open the Pictures library by clicking the Start button, and then clicking Pictures.
  2. In the left pane, click the folder that contains the pictures you want to view.
  3. Click the arrow next to the Views button, and then move the slider to change the size of the thumbnails.

For more information, you may refer the following link:

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/View-and-print-picture-thumbnails

You may also try to Enable or disable the thumbnail preview using group policy editor.

Note: The following steps won’t work in home editions of Windows 7.

To do this, follow the steps:

  1. Click on start and type gpedit.msc in start search bar and press enter.
  2. Now navigate to User Configuration, Administrative Templates, and Start Menu and Taskbar in left pan of Group Policy Editor
  3. Locate “Turn off Taskbar Thumbnails” in right pan of Group policy editor and double click on it.
  4. Select Enable or Disable click apply and Press ok
  5. Now check your Taskbar, it shouldn’t show Thumbnails Preview.

Please Note: Taskbar Thumbnail Preview only works when you have Enabled Aero in Windows 7.

Hope this information is helpful.

Praseetha. K.

Microsoft Answers Support Engineer

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  1. Anonymous
    2011-11-12T21:51:35+00:00

    Another answer that I haven't seen posted yet...  Using Vista, not sure about Windows 7, etc.  This one is admittedly more of a workaround than a fix.

    I had mapped a network drive and when I accessed it using the mapped drive letter then I could not see the thumbnails.  It would load them all but when the last one appeared they would all disappear.  I tried everything listed here with no luck.

    I could click a file and wait a few seconds until I saw the preview in the bottom left corner, but that would take forever for over 1,000 vacation pictures.  If I highlighted multiple files, then I could get maybe 5 or so to go at once, but I had to wait.  I noticed that the cursor might start swirling and when it stopped it would be good, if there were multiple files then the address bar would have a green progress bar.  When I refreshed, they would stay there.

    Instead of accessing by the network drive letter, I used the UNC path (\IPaddress\sharename) to go into the folder.  If I had it on medium or larger icons it would generate the previews, but this time the address bar would have the green progress bar while generating the thumbnails.  I noticed that the thumbnails would actually change size to slightly smaller.  When it was done, the green progress bar would disappear and then I could refresh the mapped drive window of the same folder and the thumbnails would all be there.   A little bit tedious since I have multiple albums, but I can open the folder and just check back a couple minutes later and then do the next one, so its okay for now.

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  2. Anonymous
    2011-11-14T07:41:36+00:00

    If that does not work, try clearing the thumbnail cache using the Disk Cleanup (cleanmgr.exe) tool.

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