How to Enable the Thumbnail View for Folders in Windows Explorer

This article describes how to enable the Thumbnail view for folders in Windows Explorer.

To enable the Thumbnail view for a folder in Windows Explorer:

1. If you have not already done so, install the Windows Desktop Update component. For more information about how to install the Windows Desktop Update component, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
   165695  (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/165695/ ) How to add or remove Windows Desktop Update
2. Right-click the folder for which you want to enable the Thumbnail view, and then click Properties.
3. Click to select the Enable Thumbnail View check box, and then click OK.

To view the contents of a folder by using the Thumbnail view, open the folder for which the Thumbnail view is enabled, and then click Thumbnails on the View menu. The image files in the folder are displayed as miniature versions of the actual images in the right pane. The following file types can be displayed by using the Thumbnail view:

• .bmp (Windows Bitmap files)
• .gif (Graphics Interchange Format files)
• .jpg, .jpeg (Joint Photographic Experts Group files)
• .htm, .html (Hypertext Markup Language files)

Other file types may be displayed by using the Thumbnail view. Files that cannot be displayed by using the Thumbnail view are displayed with their default icons.

For more information about how to troubleshoot problems with the Thumbnail view, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: