How to disable thumbnail previews?  SOLVED

Forum for the PDF-XChange Editor - Free and Licensed Versions

Moderators: TrackerSupp-Daniel, Tracker Support, Paul - Tracker Supp, Vasyl-Tracker Dev Team, Chris - Tracker Supp, Sean - Tracker, Ivan - Tracker Software, Tracker Supp-Stefan

Post Reply
User avatar
TheDecathlon
User
Posts: 14
Joined: Sun Sep 03, 2017 8:40 am

How to disable thumbnail previews?

Post by TheDecathlon »

Hello,

I've recently reinstalled PDF-XChange Editor (Windows 10), this time with Shell Extensions enabled. I wanted to allow Directory Opus to quickly show PDF previews, and it worked fine.

Problem is that I do not want the Explorer thumbnail previews on PDF icons, mostly visible on the Desktop icons and elsewhere. What's the correct way to disable them? Can't find it. Is it even possible?

Played a bit with PDF-XChange Editor's File Associations settings and also with XCShInfoSetup.exe, but couldn't change anything. Thumbnail previews are still there.

I only want to disable PDF thumbnails, not all icon previews (the latter is easy to do in File Explorer's options).

Thank you
User avatar
TrackerSupp-Daniel
Site Admin
Posts: 8436
Joined: Wed Jan 03, 2018 6:52 pm

Re: How to disable thumbnail previews?  SOLVED

Post by TrackerSupp-Daniel »

Hello, TheDecathlon

The first thing to do is follow the steps here to open our shell utility, and then ensure that you have set the thumbnail handlers to "none"
https://www.pdf-xchange.com/knowle ... extensions
Following that, use the steps in this article to clear the thumbnail cache windows already has in place:
https://www.pdf-xchange.com/knowle ... ails-cache
Then, restart your PC. This should result in all PDF documents simply using a single small "pdf" icon, instead of a thumbnail preview.

Kind regards,
Dan McIntyre - Support Technician
Tracker Software Products (Canada) LTD

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Our Web site domain and email address has changed as of 26/10/2023.
https://www.pdf-xchange.com
Support@pdf-xchange.com
User avatar
TheDecathlon
User
Posts: 14
Joined: Sun Sep 03, 2017 8:40 am

Re: How to disable thumbnail previews?

Post by TheDecathlon »

Thank you, it worked. However, it seems that after every PDF-XChange Editor update that Thumbnail Handlers setting is being reset back to PDF X-Change. So, the thumbnails are back and this process needs to be repeated each time.

Perhaps you could make it remember its previous setting, even if Shell Extensions are enabled during installation/update?
User avatar
TrackerSupp-Daniel
Site Admin
Posts: 8436
Joined: Wed Jan 03, 2018 6:52 pm

Re: How to disable thumbnail previews?

Post by TrackerSupp-Daniel »

Hello, TheDecathlon

Paul is just checking with the Dev team to see if this is something which we can make "respected" by the update process, at the moment we are unsure.

In the meantime I wanted to mention that windows does have per folder handling for this display method, so if, say, you wanted to show thumbnails in most places, but just not on the desktop and a few select others, you could disable them only for those folders, and that would remain in place permanently for those folders, regardless of the shell extensions installed or in use. This is done from the "view" tab in explorer, while looking at the folder in question.
explorer_Pykvw0muYK.gif
Kind regards,
Dan McIntyre - Support Technician
Tracker Software Products (Canada) LTD

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Our Web site domain and email address has changed as of 26/10/2023.
https://www.pdf-xchange.com
Support@pdf-xchange.com
User avatar
TheDecathlon
User
Posts: 14
Joined: Sun Sep 03, 2017 8:40 am

Re: How to disable thumbnail previews?

Post by TheDecathlon »

Thanks for the helpful extra tip. Still hope you can add this improvement.

:)
User avatar
Radi - Tracker Supp
Site Admin
Posts: 597
Joined: Tue Mar 03, 2015 12:46 pm

How to disable thumbnail previews?

Post by Radi - Tracker Supp »

:)
Post Reply