It’s worth noting that preview thumbnails only appear when you have medium, large, or extra-large icons selected, so changing that is always an option.

You should naturally be careful about making system-wide changes if you share a PC. Typically, almost all apps provide a similar thumbnail but you might have installed some third party app which provides a blank thumbnail for PDF files. Thumbnails for PDF files are dependent on the default PDF application you use. Note that some of these apply to only the current user, while others persist across the entire system. Set it as the default app for opening PDF files.

This tutorial will cover 4 different methods to turn off and on thumbnail previews in Windows Explorer. That's not a Windows 10 thing, it's a preview pane thing. That's because the file is still counted as 'open'. Eoto wrote: The only issue we see is when it is in preview, it locks the file. This simple visual style can be beneficial if you need to quickly separate images from video files. But first, under the default apps page, click the 'reset' button. Disabling them replaces that with a generic icon, all of them showing the logo of the application Windows opens them in. They’re what helps you quickly find the media file you’re looking for. This leads many to wonder how to remove the preview pane in Windows 10, as well as thumbnails in general.įor the unfamiliar, preview thumbnails in Windows 10 are the little icons that show for every image and video. Though they act as a media preview and video previewer, they can also slow down low-powered PCs and cause UI clutter. PDF Preview for Windows 10 is an add-in for Windows Explorer, Microsoft Outlook, and Microsoft Office 10 that allows users to preview PDF files without. Windows 10’s preview thumbnails are incredibly useful if you have confusing file names, but those who are well-organized may just find them an annoyance.

Windows 10 pdf thumbnails