Windows 11: Thumbnail previews do not show on folders

Anonymous
2021-11-28T18:05:14+00:00

My folders are appearing as blank folder icons, where in Win 10 they showed thumbnail previews of the contents.

I've searched online for answers, and most appear to apply to earlier versions, and tell me to uncheck the 'icon only, no thumbnail' choice in View|Options, but that is already unchecked, so that is not the answer.

Does anyone have an actual working answer? Thanks if you do!

.....ph

Windows for home | Windows 11 | Files, folders, and storage

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

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Sumit 44,316 Reputation points Volunteer Moderator
2022-02-17T07:04:33+00:00

The Windows 11 2022 update brings Thumbnail previews to folders.

Windows 11 2022 update now available - Microsoft Community

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  1. Anonymous
    2022-02-05T13:50:50+00:00

    What you're describing is what happens to thumbnail previews when you're low on disk space. When disk space is low windows isn't able to generate thumbnails. The issue we're describing here is, there are no longer thumbnail previews on folders in Windows 11; folders are now just the generic folder icon without any way of knowing whats inside of them.

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  2. Anonymous
    2022-02-03T05:05:28+00:00

    Done that , Thanks

    Windows 11: Thumbnail previews do not show on folders, kindly fix it in next Update , thanks

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  3. Anonymous
    2022-01-21T11:22:58+00:00

    Love to give this a try, but I am not able to get it to work. I followed the steps you described and in each folder a .ico file was generated. However, File Explorer is still showing the same folder icon. How do I actually utilize the generated .ico file to replace the generic folder icon? Seems like there are extra steps missing.

    Hi Jason, I've inserted a picture with what I did and the result as an example. Maybe try to do a restart if it doesn't update the folder.

    Image

    From what I can see what the software does is a desktop.ini config file along with a thumb.ico file and applies that icon to the desired folder. It is something simple but very helpful. Windows used to natively do this and it constantly updated the icon with your latest edited files.

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  4. Anonymous
    2022-01-14T19:12:09+00:00

    This is either deliberate click bait or you're missing the point of this thread. I'm betting it's the first one.

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