How to Show Image Previews in Windows 10 & 11

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See picture previews and thumbnails for all photos in a folder

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Windows 10

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Windows 11

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Fixing Corrupted Previews

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Video

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Q&A

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Tips

ARTICLE

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Do you want to see thumbnail previews of pictures in folders without having to open the files? While photo previews are usually enabled in Windows 10 and 11 by default, you may need to enable them manually. Fortunately, it's quite easy to enable all types of file previews, including image previews, from your File Explorer's settings—we'll show you how!

Quick Steps

Open a folder that contains photos in File Explorer.
Click the View menu and select Options.
Click the View tab.
Uncheck "Always show icons, never thumbnails" and click OK.
Select Extra large icons, Large icons, or another preview mode.

Method 1

Method 1 of 3:

Enabling Image Previews in Windows 10

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Open File Explorer
. Click the folder icon at the bottom of the screen, or press the Windows key + E key on your keyboard at the same time.
You'll need to enable image previews for folders individually. Using the File Explorer's left-hand column of folders, navigate to the folder in which you want to enable image previews.
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It's on the upper-left side of the File Explorer window. A toolbar will drop down from the top of the window.
This icon is in the toolbar at the upper-right corner of the window.
It's at the top of the pop-up window.
6
Uncheck the "Always show icons, never thumbnails" box. You'll find this in the "Files and Folders" section near the bottom of the window.
- If you don't see this box, double-click the "Files and Folders" heading to make it appear.
- If this box is already unchecked, you may have to fix the corrupted thumbnail cache.
Both options are at the bottom of the window. Doing so will apply your settings and close the window.
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Make sure your folder is displaying the proper viewing option. To see image thumbnail previews, your folder must display files and folders using a supported viewing option (e.g., Extra large icons). To change the current view setting, do the following:
- Click the View tab.
- Click one of the following "Layout" options: Extra large icons, Large icons, Medium icons, Tiles, or Content.
- If you cannot see image previews after following these steps, you'll need to fix the corrupted thumbnail cache.

Method 2

Method 2 of 3:

Enabling Image Previews in Windows 11

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To do so, click the folder icon in the taskbar at the bottom of the screen, or press Windows key + E on your keyboard.
For example, to enable image previews in your Pictures folder, click Pictures in the left panel. If the photos are in a different location, click This PC in the left panel, then navigate to that location.
It's at the top of the File Explorer window.
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Select an option that displays previews. Choose any of these options to display image previews in the folder: Extra large icons, Large icons, Medium icons, Tiles, or Content.
- If you cannot see image previews after following these steps, you'll need to fix the corrupted thumbnail cache.
5
Enable the Preview Pane (optional). If you just want to see small previews in the folder, you can skip this step. If you want to see a larger preview in a separate panel without opening the image, click the View menu and select Preview pane.
- This will also allow you to see previews of non-photo files, including DOCX and PDF formats.
6
Show image previews for all subfolders (optional). If you want to quickly enable image previews for all folders within an existing folder, select the parent folder, then follow these steps:
- Click the three horizontal dots at the top of the window.
- Click Properties.
- Click the Customize tab.
- Select Pictures from the "Optimize this folder for" menu.
- Check the box next to "Also apply this template to all subfolders."
- Click OK to save your changes.

Method 3

Method 3 of 3:

Fixing Corrupted Previews

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Windows 10 keeps a cache of thumbnails for every one of your computer's files. If this cache becomes corrupted, your folders' image previews won't display properly. If you've tried enabling image previews already, clearing the thumbnail cache may solve your problem.^{[1]XResearch source}
Press the Windows key, type disk cleanup, then click Disk Cleanup when it appears at the top of the menu.
You can uncheck every other box in the main window, but the "Thumbnails" box must be checked.
It's at the bottom of the window.
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Click Delete Files when prompted. Doing so will prompt Disk Cleanup to delete your computer's thumbnails from the cache.
- This can take several minutes, especially if you've never deleted thumbnails before. Once the pop-up window disappears, you can proceed.
6
Open your preferred folder. Go to the folder in which you wanted thumbnails to appear. After a moment of refreshing, your pictures' previews should appear.
- If thumbnails still aren't showing, you may need to disable the "Always show icons, never thumbnails" setting in Windows 10 or Windows 11 and ensure that your folder is using the proper viewing option.

Community Q&A

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Question
How do I make the pictures of the stuff in the folder show up when I change to large icons?
Community Answer
The first 2 items in the folder are the ones that show up on the folder icon. There's no way to change it directly, but since files are ordered alphabetically by default, you can just rename the files you want in front so they are the first two of the folder in alphabetical order.
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Question
What happens to my pictures after clicking the delete files button?
Curiousguy033
Community Answer
They will be deleted from the folder in which they are located and then moved to the "trash bin". There you can always renew it and use it, but if you don't need the pictures you can also delete them from the bin and they will be deleted from the entire computer. You cant renew them after that, so be careful.
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Question
Tried doing this but the folder is already unchecked. Does it make it a difference if its a compressed folder from WhatsApp?
Community Answer
No preview assets are generated when files are in a .zip file and they aren’t yet uncompressed. To solve this, just uncompress the folder.
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Tips

These steps will also display image previews for video files.
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Corrupted thumbnail caches can occur due to anything from a system update to a virus.
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