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
    2012-02-09T06:00:08+00:00

    This actually brought back my thumbnails !!  Big help, but a hassle to move everything, since a few programs and some drivers had to be installed with the new user.

    ONLY ONE MAJOR PROBLEM after doing this.  USER ACCOUNT CONTROL is screwed up.

    With UAC turned on , the internet activity icon (bottom of screen) doesn't report that it's connected when it is, and gives access denied in a lot of things even though the new user was set up as an admin.  Ended up keeping corrupt profile to turn UAC on and off so I can still do other things.

    Can't even turn it on or off with new account.

    Rarely need to do major changes that require it to be turned off, but It would be nice if Microsoft could make their programs WORK before bringing out new versions.  Every help topic tells you how to fix it and then tells you that you CAN'T fix it if you don't have the "business" version.

    Of course 9/10's of the versions in use are home versions, which force you to spend more $$ to fix the problems in the software that are CREATED by the software.  If MS wasn't so money grubbing, they would have made an EASY fix to the FIRST problem that DIDN'T create MORE problems.....

    O.K.  off soapbox now :-)

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  2. Anonymous
    2012-02-09T08:26:33+00:00

    No these answers are the same over and over and as stated in my first question i tried all of these and they didn't work, 

    However, one of my IT buddy's helped me with this problem, he went into regedit  in the windows directory and placed in the correct registry files and this sorted out the problem.

    Whoever else has tried everything as the above mentioned solutions and it doesn't help get the correct registry files into regedit and it will sort it out.

    you can google the correct registry files and get someone experienced to help you with the regedit process.

    Good luck cause it caused a lot of headaches for me.

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