Comments on: Enable or Disable Thumbnail Preview for PDF Files

By: Frank Biancco

Frank Biancco — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 23:58:43 +0000

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.

By: Alan

Alan — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 00:22:40 +0000

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.

By: Michael2

Michael2 — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 15:58:16 +0000

Thanks, worked nicely!

By: michael

michael — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 12:35:43 +0000

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).