PDF files Not Displaying Thumbnails In Windows Explorer How To Fix

Enable thumbnail preview of PDFs in Windows Explorer

Open Acrobat DC or Acrobat Reader DC. On the Edit menu, choose Preferences.

In the Preferences dialog box, choose General in the Categories list, and then select the Enable PDF thumbnail previews in Windows Explorer check box.

This issue usually happens on 64-bit operating systems.

[jeffmaesar]

awesome, since my last windows update the minatures vanished, i thought it has something to do with a software i removed, this solution works very well, i havent thought about cheking this kind of parameter in adobe acrobat reader. Thanks a lot.

[JamesLoudon]

Nice, thanks very much. Works for me in WIndows 7.

[jasminekaif]

thank you so much it work for me in windows 8, and after enable it install something automatically and then my thumbnail become visible

[tapio]

Asim, thanks a lot, this fixed it for me!

[stephenmisson]

Doesn't work with Acrobat 9 Pro. That box is not present in this version.

[iiwi]

1) If you're using a PDF viewer other than Adobe Acrobat, such as Foxit Reader, make it as the default program again. In Foxit Reader, you find this in Preferences > File Associations.

If this doesn't work, try rebooting your computer. If it still doesn't work, try reinstalling the program.

2) If you're using an older version of Adobe Acrobat (e.g. Acrobat 9 Pro 9.0.0) that doesn't have the option shown in the video, you may try the following:

Open RegEdit and go to:



If it doesn't exist then you may not have Adobe Reader installed in the first place. Or Adobe may have changed the way they install it. Or you may be on 32-bit Windows. Or you may be on 64-bit Windows but have run the 32-bit version of RegEdit.exe by mistake.

There should be an existing AppID value, incorrectly set to

Change the AppID value to

Now see if the same registry path exists but without the Wow6432Node part. If it does exist, make the same change as before. If it doesn't exist then that's fine and you can skip this part.



If you are afraid of messing with the Registry, the site offers a free fix that'll do the process automatically, but I have not tried it.

[MrAmrishjassi]

Hi I tried as you explained in video but still facing same problem.

[ganapatihubalikar]

When we open internet explorer in win8.1 pdf any files not opening after closing internet explorer 11 pdf files opening any solution

[stacyh]

"enable PDF thumbnail preview in Windows Explorer" not an option in Adobe 11

[RH-vqgk]

Hasn't worked for us. Tried uninstalling, reboot, reinstalling etc and still nothing :(