Windows 8.1 Preview Pane only shows Icons for pictures - no previews

Anonymous
2013-11-18T15:19:36+00:00

I can view previews of documents (pdfs and docs) but previews of jpegs (and all other image file formats) will only show icons no matter what I configure as the Default Program, i.e. Photo, MS Paint, or Photoshop.

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

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Anonymous
2013-11-18T19:34:26+00:00

Hi,

Thanks for reporting this problem! It sounds like you need to change a system setting relating to thumbnails. Perform the following steps to enable thumbnails to be shown:

  1. Launch File Explorer (Winkey+E).
  2. Click the View tab at the top of the window.
  3. Click the Options button.
  4. In the Folder Options window that appears, click on the View tab..
  5. Uncheck the "Always show icons, never thumbnails" option.
  6. Click Apply, then OK.

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  1. Anonymous
    2014-11-03T19:30:15+00:00

    Hi,

    Thanks for reporting this problem! It sounds like you need to change a system setting relating to thumbnails. Perform the following steps to enable thumbnails to be shown:

    1. Launch File Explorer (Winkey+E).
    2. Click the View tab at the top of the window.
    3. Click the Options button.
    4. In the Folder Options window that appears, click on the View tab..
    5. Uncheck the "Always show icons, never thumbnails" option.
    6. Click Apply, then OK.

    Thanks a lot. Worked perfectly.

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  2. Anonymous
    2014-10-04T01:26:50+00:00

    #1, this is proprietary add-on software and #2, it only 'works' for adobe, not the myriad of other software which MS has just made unusable with this latest 'enhancement'....

    As usual, MS wants you to buy only MS software and Win8 is a big step toward disabling everyone else's software on Windows machines.  What a disaster.

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  3. Anonymous
    2014-09-07T00:21:34+00:00

    Fantastic!!!  Problem solved.  Thank you so very, very much.

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  4. Anonymous
    2014-09-01T15:09:13+00:00

    Hello, thank you, I was able to enable the viewing of the pictures now. Thanks for flagging me on this.

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