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.
Tags Server 2008 Workstation
June 15th, 2008 at 16:14
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
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 15:52
Please indicate if the nice Vista desktop environment and style is available for this server 2008
THKS
August 3rd, 2008 at 0:32
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