Enable or Disable Thumbnail Preview for PDF Files

Adobe Acrobat Reader includes a thumbnail extractor shell extension which generates thumbnail preview for PDF files in Explorer. If you want to disable PDF thumbnail generation for performance or for other reasons, use the steps listed below:

(This assumes that you have Adobe Acrobat Reader installed in your system.)

Disable Thumbnail Preview for .PDF files

Note: For an automated solution using REG files, see section Registry Fix in this article.

1. Launch Regedit.exe and navigate to the following branch:

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT \ AcroExch.Document.7 \ Shellex \ {BB2E617C-0920-11d1-9A0B-00C04FC2D6C1}

2. Backup the branch using the Export option under File menu.

3. Right-click {BB2E617C-0920-11d1-9A0B-00C04FC2D6C1} and choose Delete. Click Yes when prompted for confirmation.

4. Exit the Registry Editor.

5. Logoff and login back for the change to take effect.

Tip: Existing PDF files may still show thumbnail preview from the thumbnail cache. In Windows XP you can simply delete the hidden file named thumbs.db (thumbnail database file) to refresh the views. In Windows Vista, use the Disk Cleanup tool to clear the thumbnail cache.

If you’re using Windows Vista, the Preview pane can still generate preview for PDF files, despite the above setting.

Registry Fix

1. Download pdf-thumb.zip and save to Desktop.

2. Extract the files to a folder.

3. Double-click pdf-thumb-disable.reg to run it.

4. Logoff and login back for the change to take effect.

Undo information: To reverse the changes, run the file pdf-thumb-enable.reg.

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6 Comments

slurm23

said this on Monday, May 31st 2010 5:23 pm

This doesn’t work on Win7 64-bit and as I only want the PDF Thumbnail Preview gone, the option mentioned above (Folder Options) doesn’t help much either.. Any ideas? Please update the guide if at all possible!
Common Sense Atheism » How to Delete the First Page for Thousands of PDF Documents

said this on Wednesday, April 7th 2010 10:08 am

[...] page into a certain folder called 'RemoveFirstPage'. This is easiest if you have PDF thumbnails enabled in Windows Explorer, or if you use Adobe Bridge, so that you can easily see that each file you put [...]
Frank Biancco

said this on Tuesday, February 16th 2010 5:28 am

I had the same problem, while running Windows 7 64-bit. There is a tweak in the Explorer menu.
Bring up Windows Explorer (Start –> All Programs –> Accessories –> Windows Explorer), then under Organize, go to Folder Options –> View. There, you can check the first box Always show icons, never thumbnails.
This should fix it. However, it will also change the settings system wide, so jpegs and such will no longer have a thumbnail, which may be annoying.
Alan

said this on Sunday, December 13th 2009 5:52 am

I am using Windows 7 64-bit and my problem is that pdfs display as thumbnails in “Downloads” folder. Some do and some don’t on desktop. All other folders they display as adobe icon. I believe the fault is by design in Windows 7 and Vista. Another case of Microsoft deciding for us, what they think we want.
This would be why the registry hack doesn’t work. especially on 64-bit machines.
Michael2

said this on Wednesday, October 8th 2008 9:28 pm

Thanks, worked nicely!
michael

said this on Monday, August 4th 2008 6:05 pm

it did not fix the issue. i’m very sory but it does not work for vista. i edit the registry both manually and with your .reg files, but it did not act on the explorer thumbnails although i clean the thumbnail cache. i think there is another secret key in registry that acts directly to all of the thumbnails (to all file types).