6 Ways To Display Thumbnail Previews In File Explorer
If you’re struggling with media preview configuration in Windows 11, or facing issues with video file thumbnails and File Explorer, this guide is for you. Discover how to tackle thumbnail issues and enhance your system using essential multimedia tools for better file previews and smoother navigation.
Best Media Preview Configuration Tools for Windows 11
1. Media Preview
Media Preview shows thumbnails for video, image, and audio formats. Although it hasn’t been updated since 2014, it supports 46 video types, including AVI, Flash, and Matroska.
You can choose which formats to include during installation and reset settings with the Restore button. The Settings tab allows you to adjust thumbnail quality and performance. Remove overlays for faster performance or fix display issues with the Fix Thumbnail Type Settings button.
Media Preview automatically selects a video frame, and you can clear the thumbnail cache if needed.
2. Icaros
Icaros is a tool similar to Media Preview but is kept more up to date and has a slightly different feature set. It supports some audio and images in addition to most video formats with around 75 supported file extensions in total. Icaros requires .NET Framework 4 to function which will need to have been installed on Windows 7 and below systems.
At the end of the install process, you can simply choose to activate Icaros and forget about it although for more complete format support check the option to launch IcarosConfig. Click the preset drop down at the top right and change from Default to Common or Most Known for the program to recognize all the file types it can. Click in the Thumbnail FileTypes box to manually edit or add to the list of extensions.
The Thumbnailing window lets you choose the percentage or timestamp offset to extract the thumbnail, whether to include the media player overlay icon or movie reel, and whether to include cover art. It also allows you to specify actions if a black or white frame is detected. To activate or deactivate thumbnails, click on Thumbnailing to the left.
Icaros also includes a properties option that adds extra information for formats not supported by Windows to the Details tab. When you right click a file, select Properties > Details. The Caching feature can create a custom cache for predefined folders which gives quicker thumbnail loading while Tools has options to clear the thumbnail cache, refresh/restart Explorer or reset the file types to defaults.
3. ShellExView
ShellExView is a lightweight and powerful tool that allows you to manage shell extensions on your Windows system.
If you encounter issues with thumbnail previews in File Explorer, it could be because of outdated or conflicting shell extensions.
This tool enables you to disable or enable specific thumbnail preview handlers, ensuring that the right preview handler is active for the file types you need. By using ShellExView, you can fix many issues where thumbnails are not displaying correctly.
It provides an easy way to manage extensions and troubleshoot thumbnail issues without the need to dive deep into system settings.
4. ThumbsUp
ThumbsUp is a tool that helps fix thumbnail cache issues in Windows. Sometimes, the thumbnail cache can become corrupted, causing thumbnails to disappear or appear incorrectly.
ThumbsUp allows users to quickly refresh the thumbnail cache, rebuilding missing or corrupted thumbnails.
This simple tool can restore media file thumbnails in File Explorer, making it a quick solution for those struggling with thumbnail preview problems. It’s ideal for anyone experiencing missing or incorrect previews in their media files without needing to dive into complicated troubleshooting.
5. K-Lite Codec Pack
K-Lite is likely the most well-known and widely used codec pack today, available in four versions: Basic, Standard, Full, and Mega.
Sizes range from 16MB to around 60MB. Any version enables thumbnail support, so Basic is sufficient if you don’t need extras. Be cautious during setup, as K-Lite may include adware in the installer.
K-Lite and its Codec Tweak Tool use the Icaros libraries to display the thumbnails. The major difference is the configuration UI and the extra features like Cache and Properties control available directly from Icaros. Once installed, open the Codec Tweak Tool and click Thumbnails in the Miscellaneous section. The window offers a selection of video file types that have thumbnail support, make sure whatever you need is selected.
To reach the settings window click Options. This area lets you remove the video reel and file type icon overlays, use Microsoft-specific thumbnails, clear the thumbnail cache (via Windows Disk Cleanup), display embedded cover art for thumbnails, enable black/white frame detection, and specify the time/percent offset for the thumbnail in the video.
The extra Explorer details for the file types are included as well and can be disabled from the Various Tweaks window. Do not try to install Icaros and K-Lite/Codec Tweak Tool together as it can cause conflicts and not all Icaros settings will be available in the Options window.
6. Shark007 Codecs
The Shark007 Codec pack comes in two flavors, Standard and Advanced. The smallest pack is a lot bigger than K-Lite’s and is around 35MB for Standard and 51MB for the Advanced version. The ability to show thumbnails for video files is included in both versions so either will work just fine for this task.
Like K-Lite, the Shark007 Codecs also use Icaros to show the thumbnails. The Icaros package includes its normal user interface and options for video file details and caching. It pre-enables thumbnailing and properties, along with several file types.
To open the Icaros user interface or quickly turn off detail Properties, open the 32-bit or 64-bit settings application depending on your system and look on the Config tab.
In conclusion, configuring media previews on Windows 11 can significantly improve your workflow by streamlining how you interact with video, audio, and image files.
Fine-tuning settings such as video file thumbnails, file explorer options, and caching preferences will help optimize your system’s media preview capabilities. For a better file management experience, learn how to add tabs in your Windows Explorer, which can make navigation more efficient. If you want to personalize your system further, change the standard folder icon to something more customized.
For those who frequently handle video files, you might find it helpful to convert iPhone MOV videos to WMV using Windows Live Movie Maker. Finally, make sure your media files are supported by checking the installed audio and video codecs on your computer.
thank you when I convert file format , or Download a video with higher resolution, or edit it, the preview picture changes I would like to keep the original picture for the new file, how I can do it.
Thanks, just updated my laptop to Windows 11 and the video’s thumbnail was not working…Icaros solved my problem.
Thank you.
media preview used to be a great piece of software but it has sadly been abandoned. now media preview hangs on VP9 video files using 100% CPU forever and there’s not even a way to avoid those files because they have the same file extension.
Same.
All done, save a lot of video filtering time. I use the K-Lite Codec Pack Basic, the capacity is very light. Thanks, admin
Icaros had me fixed in 5 minutes! Thank you for this.
K-Lite Codec Pack Fixed, My thanks
bad news: after installing shark 007, windows can’t load on-screen keyboard at login [had to rollback to pre-shark restore point] SORRY∙ {I never use keyboard}
Have you tried using Icaros on its own? It’s possible something else in the codec pack is causing your issue.
tried shark 007, IT WORKED. thank u! (it also fixed flv playback)
very very useful thanks alot
Thanks a ton THE GREAT MAN you solve my problem easily which took too many days of my time to solve it. <3
Terima kasih!
Yes! I’d given up on this awhile ago. Media Preview solved the issue immediately. Thank you!
Just tried it! It works in 4k videos!!!! Video thumbnails do appear now.
Thank you very much!
After googling for this problem and reading several answers in different forums yours was the only one that seemed to understand the problem and knew the correct solution. I installed media preview and it worked instantly.
Thank you thank you. I was almost giving up.
thank you very much…you are really a masterbrain ….!!!!!
THANK-YOU so much, this fixed my problem and was a very easy fix. Previously the .wmv and .flv format files only displayed the icon only on my Windows 10 system. Changing the setting as you described fixed the problem and all video types are displayed in the thumbnail preview without the need to install additional software. Don’t know how you figured this out, but this is so much easier than installing additional software. Thanks again !!!!
Thanks, that worked great! Mine was set to 3, so I set it to 0 and did the trick.
And what has that got to do with displaying thumbnails for unsupported video formats??
MediaPreview is a beast! Icaros was NOT getting it done. Uninstalled Icaros, MediaPreview even fixed my ts files….
This actually worked very well. I was having an issue where all my OBS recordings would just show a VLC icon and Media Preview solved it!
Wow, I just had to add webp extension to MediaPreview and it works for webp images too!
Very very thanks brother.. It’s work !!! :)
Thank you very much. Media preview solve my problem. 100% perfectly works in my windows 8.1. awesome app
Thank you very much. Media preview solve my problem. 100% perfectly works in my windows 10 64 bit
Icaros download his things attach to it do not download it on less you want spyware on your pc
I’ve just downloaded and installed Icaros using the provided link and it offered nothing and installed nothing apart from the program itself.
Care to elaborate on what “things” were attached to your copy?
The whole purpose of these types of program is to cache thumbnails and icons to load fast. There is a problem I don’t see being addressed. Just about everything besides videos and pictures have icons. Game icons, program icons, you name it. These are the areas I would love to see being integrated into these programs. Try creating some folders with nothing but game and program shortcuts in them. Each day loading those folders, it take from 30 secs to a minute to load all the icons. Even in the same day is you have these folders closed for a period of time, and open them again, that same process starts all over again. I don’t understand why all those icons can’t also be cached for instant retrieval like video files are. It just can’t be that big of a deal to make this happen or no one has figured out a way yet. Microsoft sure hasn’t. Doesn’t make sense in this day and age of fast computers the we still have this kind of stuff happening.
Excelent, thank you very much! Never thought that K-lite has such an option…
I seriously never leave comments in these types of places after getting/testing/using what I need, be the thing successful or not but I feel inclined to do so this time because not only did this work great, it really and utterly was flawless. I’m sort of technologically impaired even compared to most, even. I was having a problem with my video/picture thumbnails not showing and instead, displaying the icon for the media player (VLC in my case) and after visiting a dozen websites with conflicting answers and no resolutions. After trying command prompts and other programs I finally happened upon this one thankfully. I downloaded it (no ads or extra installs hidden in the download) opened it (well, it launched by itself in a matter of seconds) I ‘added a file type’ (just opened a single one of my videos) and booya’. Problem fixed.
I repeat, I never leave comments in these places, but I was so utterly impressed and happy that I even decided to turn off my adblocker and send a donation, which; sort of Wikipedia, I never do. Thank you so much.
Media Preview did the trick on Windows 10!! Thank you!!!
Media Preview its work great for windows 10, thx :)
I use “Media Preview”. The program works great! Thank you very much for your help!
Good, not great. Catch is, aside from incomplete format coverage and spotty performance, is that it preview size is capped, and small, sigh. It’d be a great utility if it offered zoom/full-preview-window-coverage.
This tool is awesome! Easy to use and efficient! I spent much time without success trying to make my laptop to show previews of AVI files instead of a standard icon. With Media Preview it is done in one click! Thank you!
And for image formats, there’s SageThumbs code.google.com/p/sagethumbs/ or MysticThumbs mysticcoder.net/mysticthumbs.html
I use Icaros “which is capable of providing Windows Explorer thumbnails,
for essentially any video media type supported by LAV Source Splitter.” It comes bundled with K-Lite codec pack and also separately.
majorgeeks.com/Icaros_d7220.html
Works very well.
great prog —- already had it due to flv’s not previewing ,nice to see it getting some air time Ray