Thumbnail previews play an important role in helping you identify content within image and video files. However, Windows 11 and Windows 10 can stop displaying them for several reasons. Older iterations of the operating system have also had the same issue.
In most cases, you’ll see blank thumbnails due to incorrectly configured File Explorer settings (called Windows Explorer earlier) or a corrupt thumbnail cache. But rarely, you could be dealing with something as severe as a malware infestation.
Your first course of action is to check if Windows 11 or Windows 10 is set up to display thumbnail previews in File Explorer. You can do that via the File Explorer Options dialog.
1. Select the Search icon or box on the taskbar and type file explorer options.
2. Select Open.
. Switch to the View tab.
4. Uncheck the box next to Always show icons, never thumbnails.
Select Apply, then OK.
If you had to activate the option in step 4, File Explorer should generate thumbnails immediately. If you didn’t have to do anything, move on with the rest of the fixes.
If you have followed the steps correctly, you should be able to see your photo previews.
If not, you may require additional assistance. Please submit a ticket.
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