Thumbnail previews on Windows give you a glimpse of your files without opening them. Windows 11 can sometimes stop showing these file thumbnails for various reasons. If you're experiencing a similar issue on your Windows 11 PC, you can troubleshoot to fix thumbnails not showing in Windows 11.
While the cause could range from a simple glitch to corrupted system files, this guide covers all the possible solutions that will help you get those thumbnails back. So, let's get started.
1. Enable thumbnails on Windows
First, you need to check your Windows File Explorer options to make sure thumbnails are enabled on your computer.
Step 1: press the . key Windows + S To open Windows Search , And type File Explorer Options , And press Enter.
2. Restart Windows Explorer.
it is known that File Explorer on Windows It sometimes encounters errors. Thumbnails not showing up can also be a cause. Fortunately, these issues are often easily resolved by simply restarting File Explorer.
Step 1: Click on Ctrl + Shift + Esc On the keyboard to run Task Manager quickly.
Step 2: Click more details To expand task management.
Step 3: in the tab "The operation" Scroll down to find Windows ExplorerSelect it and then press Reboot.
3. Rebuild thumbnail cache
All thumbnail data on Windows is stored in a cache. When this data becomes corrupted, Windows may fail to load thumbnails. To fix this, you can force Windows to rebuild the thumbnail cache.
Step 1: press the . key Windows + I To open Settings and move to Storage.
Step 2: Click Temporary files.
Step 3: Scroll down toSelect thumbnails and click Option remove files above.
4. Change the default application type
If the thumbnail doesn't display and the issue is limited to only a few file types, it may be due to the selected default application. You can try Change the default app for a file type To see if this helps you.
Step 1: Right click Problem file type , and go to opened by using and select Choose another app.
Step 2: Choose a different app and check the box that says “Always use this app to open files.”. Click "OK" لSaving changes.
5. Modify advanced system settings
If you recently modified any of your Windows performance options, you may not see any thumbnail previews on Windows. Here's how to change that.
Step 1: Open menu START YOUR , And type View advanced system settings , And press Enter.
Step 2: in window System properties which opens, switch to the tab Advanced Options and click the . button Settings within the performance.
Step 3: On the Visual Effects tab, select custom and check out Save thumbnail previews for the taskbar و Show thumbnails instead of icons.
Finally, tap "Application" و "OK" لSaving changes.
6. Restore File Explorer options
Finally, if nothing works, you can try restoring your File Explorer options to their default settings to see if that brings back the thumbnails.
Step 1: Open menu START YOUR , And type File Explorer Options , And press Enter.
Step 2: In the next window, switch to the View tab and click the button Restore the default settings. Then click "Application" ثم "OK".
Check if the thumbnails are showing now.
7. Perform an SFC scan
Corrupted or missing system files can cause errors in Windows 11, including this one. Fortunately, Windows 11 comes with SFC, also known as System File Checker scan , which can find corrupted system files on your computer and restore them to the previous version.
If Windows 11 fails to load thumbnails, you can try running an SFC scan by following the steps below.
Step 1: Right click on the icon start menu Option Windows Terminal (admin) from the resulting list.
Step 2: Type the command shown below and press Enter.
sfc / scannow
Wait until the process is complete and then restart your computer.
8. Malware Scanning
If the above solutions fail to resolve the issue of thumbnails not appearing on Windows, your computer may be infected with malware. You can try running a comprehensive scan of your computer using Windows Defender Or any of your favorite antivirus software to check it.
Preview your files
Many of us prefer using thumbnails over icons. While Windows 11 doesn't display any thumbnails for folders by design, it still supports thumbnails for files. Hopefully, one of the solutions above helped you fix the issue of thumbnails not showing up in Windows 11.
