How to Fix Image Thumbnails Not Displayed in Windows 7 and Vista?

Are your image files showing up with a generic mountain and lake scene (for every picture) as shown below, instead of the miniature / thumbnail display? Here is how to enable Windows to generate and display thumbnail icon for your image files.

To enable thumbnail view for your images, first open the folder in question. In the Views drop-down in the Task pane, select one of the following views:

Medium Icons
Large Icons
Extra Large Icons

If thumbnail previews are not generated, then open Folder Options applet via Control Panel or from Start – Search box (by running the command "control folders"). In the View tab of Folder Options, uncheck the following option:

Always show icons, never thumbnails

Click OK.

Clear the Thumbnail Cache

If that does not work, try clearing the thumbnail cache using the Disk Cleanup (cleanmgr.exe) tool.

See How to Clear the Thumbnail Cache in Windows 7 and Windows Vista for more information.

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15 Comments

Sher

said this on Thursday, May 3rd 2012 2:48 am

I’ve tried all of these things. I still am unable to preview my PDF files. There is a large red A for adobe pdf icon showing. I was able to click on it and have a small preview pop up at the side window. That is gone now however. With Windows 2003 I could see all of the contents of my files at a glance. They are art files and I need to be able to look at the preview thumbnails to compare them and count them without opening each file by itself. Please help
Debirah

said this on Sunday, April 22nd 2012 11:08 pm

You are the BEST!! I ve been going crazy. Thank YOU!!
FJHS3

said this on Tuesday, April 10th 2012 12:37 am

Many thanks…images popped right up!
neo

said this on Sunday, January 15th 2012 8:14 am

Clear the Thumbnail Cache
worked for me. thanks
jojo

said this on Friday, December 30th 2011 10:37 am

Now I can see the miniature image of my pic. You are the man!