Recently when browsing a Compressed (zipped) Folder containing some JPG images, I observed that the preview pane displayed the message "No Preview Available" when selecting an image file. However, preview worked fine if the files were extracted to a folder and then viewed from there.
Fig 1: Compressed (Zipped) Folder View
I extracted the images to a folder, and preview works just fine.
Fig 2: Windows Explorer Folder View
That doesn’t mean the preview handlers don’t work in Compressed (Zipped) Folder view. When in a Compressed (Zipped) Folder view, the shell queries the preview handler registered at the file extension level, or at the ProgID level only. But for certain file types, Windows Vista and Windows 7 by default registers the preview handler based on the Category (or Perceived Type basis.)
For example, for image files such as JPG, GIF, PNG etc, the image preview handler ("Photo Extract Image" GUID {3F30C968-480A-4C6C-862D-EFC0897BB84B}) is registered at the following registry location:
Windows Explorer, when you’re in a Compressed Folder view, doesn’t look at the above location and would simply say "No preview available". This is a simple bug in Windows 7/Vista that needs a fix.
Whereas Windows Explorer (when you’re not browsing a Zip folder) uses the preview handlers that are registered at the following areas:
1. File Extension
2. ProgID
3. Type (PerceivedType)
Hope this note helps some readers!
Related Posts
- PreviewConfig Tool Registers File Types for the Preview Pane in Windows 7/Vista
- Make the Preview Pane in Vista to Display Contents of Text Based Files
- How to Adjust Aero Peek Desktop Preview Mouse Hover Delay in Windows 7
- Enable or Disable Thumbnail Preview for PDF Files
- Show Version and Description Tags for DLL Files in the Details Pane in Vista
If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to our RSS feed! We feature Tips, Troubleshooting information, Scripts and Utilities for Microsoft Windows Operating Systems!
Prefer an E-mail subscription?
I’ve noticed that whenever I get the No Preview Available message, when I look at the Properties>Summary information for the specific file, it is always missing. What destroys the Summary information?
@Ramesh: To preview the files that aren’t a performance hit.
@John: Agreed that this could be a performance hit. But if this move had been an intentional move, then why does the shell query for preview handlers registered at the file extension level, within the zip folder view? Doesn’t sound consistent to me.
@Ramesh: But that is besides the matter. I meant the burden of extraction. Even if you are right about content inspection not requiring extraction, previewing a file requires extracting it, right? So, it is a logical behavior not to preview image files inside ZIP archives. You see, image files can sometimes become as big as 100MB.
Now, on the other hand Microsoft could have only enable the preview of image files which have an embedded thumbnail or a small size, right? WRONG! If it did that, you’d have been writing about a bug in Preview extension which prevented it from previewing some image files in a ZIP archive! No! Consistency is the best behavior.
As for preview existing for other Windows versions, right now I’m on a Windows XP workstation and JPEG image files inside a ZIP archive neither have thumbnails nor previews.
@John: File content inspection doesn’t come into the picture. Isn’t it supposed to blindly use the “preview handler” registered for file extension/file class? And, please note that this happens only for file types for which the preview handlers are registered on a category basis, rather than on the file extension directly. Previews are generated for other files types correctly. Since .zip is treated as a folder (since Win Me), I think the preview capabilities should exist for Compressed folder view, as well.
Well, this doesn’t seem to me a bug at all. MIME Types recognition demands file content inspection and, inside ZIP files, it is not a very logical thing to implement inspection.
In any case, I and a large group of people whom I know never had preview inside archive file since they use WinRAR which takes over the file association for archives. But I never felt I miss a thing.
Still, if I were a Microsoft developer, I’d replaced “No Preview Available” with “No Preview Available inside Compressed Folders”.
+1 anon, actually NT 5.1 (Windows XP) is still a decent OS for most and common people, for me personally just use Dopus (Directory Opus): http://www.gpsoft.com.au/ as the better replacement for standard Windows Explorer then it’s the only answer for me, otherwise without upgrading you can also enhance your old XP Explorer for more advanced thumbnail preview features i.e. just by visiting some of these threads: http://www.winmatrix.com/forums/index.php?/topic/19751-get-thumbnails-of-more-file-types-text-document-and-3rd-party-file/ and http://www.winmatrix.com/forums/index.php?/topic/19634-get-windows-vista-like-explorer-and-search-preview-pane-for-xp/ good luck anyway
NT6.0/6.1 has the buggiest shell ever since Windows 95 and it is very very annoying.