Preview thumbnails in Windows Explorer
Windows Server 2008 to Workstation Manual
Previews of media files are disabled by default in Windows Server 2008. In this article we will enable it so we get the small previews back again!
1. Open the Start menu and click Run. Now enter SystemPropertiesPerformance and click OK. In the Performance Options window at least check the Show thumbnails instead of icons option. If you are using themes you should also check the Use visual styles on windows and buttons option to keep you theme.
2. If we now browse to C:\Windows\Web\Wallpapers\ as a test we can see that we now have previews for pictures! Previews should also work for most movie files. Note that you have to set the View to Small Icons, Medium Icons, Large Icons or Extra Large Icons in order to see the previews.
June 15th, 2008 at 4:14 pm
Just a quick hint mate
In SystemPropertiesPerformance you enable this feature systemwide
after that you can alter this setting in every folder separately
through folder options there is an option :
Always show icons, never thumbnails
which i guess shows up after you have enabled it in system properties
if checked it does the exact oppposite thing of what you mentioned
for the specified folder
nice and easy trick to enable just the thumbnails you want
Admin: Thanks for this additional information!
July 7th, 2008 at 1:39 am
Hate to say it.. but that only works for the Administrator. A standard user still only sees the icons. Just like there is no details-pane at the bottom of Explorer and the menu stays visible.
Hopefully just some policy setting that I haven’t seen yet
Admin: Just tried using Thumbnails as a normal user, but it just works. Click to see the proof. In the cmd.exe window you see the commands ‘net user Sjakie’ and ‘whoami’ executed. I don’t know what the problem could be in your case…
July 17th, 2008 at 3:52 pm
Please indicate if the nice Vista desktop environment and style is available for this server 2008
THKS
August 3rd, 2008 at 12:32 am
I had the same problem. This issue was fixed by going in the Explorer Folder Options, then selecting the View tab, and deselecting the option “Always show icons, never thumbnails”.
Hope it will fix your problem too
October 27th, 2008 at 2:49 pm
excelent…..thanks
November 22nd, 2008 at 5:34 pm
Hi,
thanks for the wonderful tutorials in this site.
Concerning this page, I should notice I run Windows Server 2008 Enterprise, and I could see the previews of media files and pictures right after enabling Aero.
Still, this is very good info. Keep up!
Arris: I’m glad you like the tutorials!
I think you see the thumbnails directly because Windows chooses to do so, probably because it thinks your pc is fast enough for that.
December 12th, 2008 at 3:31 pm
Grrr !!! its very simple !!! 10x men !!!
December 18th, 2008 at 12:01 am
[...] The myth of Windows “Workstation” 2008-Adrian Kingsley Hughes [...]
March 10th, 2009 at 9:10 am
Thanks for this!
April 29th, 2009 at 7:04 pm
super, thx 4 this
May 30th, 2009 at 10:06 am
This should enable thumbnails via registry:
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced]
“IconsOnly”=dword:00000000
Arris: Thanks, added this to the Registry Tweaks page!
July 8th, 2009 at 6:38 am
[...] Next, I run Windows 2008 Server Enterprise on my laptop so I can use HyperV. I’ve got the Desktop Experience feature turned on so it has the Vista user experience, but I noticed that I was not getting previews nor thumbnails of JPEG files. The solution is here. http://www.win2008workstation.com/wordpress/2008/06/15/preview-thumbnails-in-windows-explorer/ [...]