Thumbnail Preview not shown for pictures in Vista

Thumbnail Preview Not Shown for Pictures in Vista?

Q: I have a lot of pictures on my Vista computer. When I try to find a photograph in a folder the icon does not show me what the photograph looks like. It is just a generic mountain and lake scene for every picture. How can I turn on the actual picture to be depicted in the icon of the file?

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.

If that does not work, try clearing the thumbnail cache using the Disk Cleanup tool. See article How to clear the thumbnail cache in Windows Vista? for more information.

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30 Responses to “Thumbnail Preview Not Shown for Pictures in Vista?”

DAP

said this on Monday, February 1st 2010 7:40 am

I did this but all my images still show as icons. When loading the directory, I see all the pictures as thumbnails, but once the directory is loaded, all goes back to images. I did the cleanup method above and I also clean the system regular with several tools, and manual methods, usually biweekly.
Travis

said this on Saturday, January 23rd 2010 10:45 pm

Thanks! Could not see my icons under pictures
RAY

said this on Tuesday, December 8th 2009 4:08 am

THIS ANSWERED THE PROBLEM THAT OTHERS COULDN’T TELL ME. THANKS
x

said this on Tuesday, November 24th 2009 12:56 am

Cool, it looks so different now. lol
Alex

said this on Thursday, November 12th 2009 9:12 pm

You saved my day, Thanks!
mi

said this on Wednesday, November 11th 2009 7:35 pm

you r a saviour…
guy ross

said this on Thursday, November 5th 2009 4:13 am

Thanks for that! I couldn’t fathom how they’d release an OS that didn’t offer an image preview but could not work out what I was doing wrong!
Thumbnail_gun

said this on Friday, October 9th 2009 12:14 am

Works for Windows7 too, thanks this was driving me mad!
Nmbr2pencil

said this on Sunday, September 27th 2009 8:07 pm

I love you dude, this was awesome and it worked thanks
Graham Jones

said this on Monday, September 14th 2009 6:24 pm

Thanks for this – so simple, but has been driving me crazy since I bought this laotop with crappy old Viista on it. In fact the machine is excellent, but is let down at every turn by this garbage OS.

Microsoft rushed this out in ahurry to rip everyone off and it shows.

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