Enable or Disable Thumbnail Previews in File Explorer in Windows 10

ICIT2LOL · 15 Dec 2020

Have tried all options but am still left with the square blue mountains icons so where am I going wrong? (I have the Pro version of 10.

Brink · 16 Dec 2020

ICIT2LOL said:

Have tried all options but am still left with the square blue mountains icons so where am I going wrong? (I have the Pro version of 10.

Hello John,

Since you already have thumbnails enabled, you might see if resetting the thumbnail cache may help.

Clear and Reset Thumbnail Cache in Windows 10

ICIT2LOL · 16 Dec 2020

Hello Shawn mate the thing is that it seems to need One Drive running before it will show thumbnails but I will go through that tutorial anyway.

If I don't communicate with you again before - a happy Christmas to you and yours from myself and mine.

Brink · 16 Dec 2020

ICIT2LOL said:

Hello Shawn mate the thing is that it seems to need One Drive running before it will show thumbnails but I will go through that tutorial anyway.

If I don't communicate with you again before - a happy Christmas to you and yours from myself and mine.

Thank you John. I hope you and yours have a Marry Christmas as well.

Are these files located on your OneDrive? If so, they may need OneDrive running to sync.

Hemimax · 29 Jul 2021

I could only get this to work by enabling Show thumbnails instead of icons in System Properties > Advanced > Performance > Visual Effects. I also had to restore the default visual effects before it stuck.

TechGuyDE · 30 Mar 2022

Hi - Do you have a tip for me on how to set this for all users?

I have two registry files, one for HKLM and one for the HIVE LOAD and UNLOAD for the ntuser.dat file that is supposed to define the various FX Options. This is what I have right now and the only option I am missing is "Show thumbnails instead of icons".

Enable or Disable Thumbnail Previews in File Explorer in Windows 10-fx.jpg

I am trying to configure this for a Golden Image, so I want each new user created with these settings plus thumbnails. I cannot figure out how to do this, without maybe scripting this. I have set the local and group policy, I have defined this in the ntuser.dat file for the default user, I have created the key for the HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT Hive. I even tried to set it in HKLM but I cannot get this to work.

Any idea?

Brink · 30 Mar 2022

TechGuyDE said:

Hi - Do you have a tip for me on how to set this for all users?

I have two registry files, one for HKLM and one for the HIVE LOAD and UNLOAD for the ntuser.dat file that is supposed to define the various FX Options. This is what I have right now and the only option I am missing is "Show thumbnails instead of icons".

I am trying to configure this for a Golden Image, so I want each new user created with these settings plus thumbnails. I cannot figure out how to do this, without maybe scripting this. I have set the local and group policy, I have defined this in the ntuser.dat file for the default user, I have created the key for the HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT Hive. I even tried to set it in HKLM but I cannot get this to work.

Any idea?

Hello,

You should be able to use the REG files in option 5 to apply to all users.

TechGuyDE · 30 Mar 2022

I didn't see that one -

I just applied the HKLM key but they checkmark didn't get checked. But that was on my W11 VM. I will installed a 10 now

edit: doesn't seem to work for me.

The regfile sets "DisableThumbnails"=- which didn't seem to set the value at all - changed it to "DisableThumbnails"=dword:00000000 but that too didn't do anything.

Does it have to be in current user? The current user will be generated from default user - so this would't have any effect would it?

Brink · 30 Mar 2022

TechGuyDE said:

I didn't see that one -

I just applied the HKLM key but they checkmark didn't get checked. But that was on my W11 VM. I will installed a 10 now

edit: doesn't seem to work for me.

The regfile sets "DisableThumbnails"=- which didn't seem to set the value at all - changed it to "DisableThumbnails"=dword:00000000 but that too didn't do anything.

Does it have to be in current user? The current user will be generated from default user - so this would't have any effect would it?

The policy is applied to both HKLM and HKCU.

Enable or Disable Thumbnail Previews in File Explorer in Windows 11 Tutorial | Windows 11 Forum

TechGuyDE · 31 Mar 2022

So I am happy to be convinced otherwise, but I just applied this on a brand new image of Windows 10 20H2 and it does not work.
The .reg file tries to write ["DisableThumbnails"=-] which it does not do. Switching it to DWORD 0 has no effect. Further, I could not find any reference to a Machine Policy for DisableThumbnails only user Policy. MS DOCS MDM CSP ADMX Thumbnails

Figure 1 - Not even the explorer key is present, even though I applied the reg key on the admin profile.

Enable or Disable Thumbnail Previews in File Explorer in Windows 10-hkcu_no_key.jpg

Figure 2 - Key present after I changed it to 0

Enable or Disable Thumbnail Previews in File Explorer in Windows 10-hklm_key.jpg

Figure 3 - Setting is not set

Enable or Disable Thumbnail Previews in File Explorer in Windows 10-not_set.jpg

You probably have more important things to do then to test this again - but I cannot get this to work.

- - - Updated - - -

Additionally I just reverted everything back to default - then disabled all FX settings under Custom except for "Show Thumbnails instead of icon". I then changed the local group policy "Turn off the display of thumbnails and only display icons" and set it to "Enabled".
This generates, as would be expected the reg key:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer
"DisableThumbnails"=dword:00000001

and will remove the check mark in the Performance Options Menu. However, when I set the Policy to disabled, and the DWORD changes to 0 - the check mark does not come back.