Thumbnails not displaying

Question

Yesterday the image files on my computer (an ASUS laptop running Windows 8) stopped showing up as thumbnails - they only come up as icons. I've spent the morning trying all of the obvious things that come up in the forums to do with checking or unchecking various tick boxes. I've cleared the thumbnail cache, I've tried running gpedit.msc but the computer can't find it. I've run sfc, but that didn't find anything. I haven't installed any new programs on my computer recently.

Interestingly, if I change to the large or extra-large icon view, the thumbnails come up briefly, but then they start to wink out and pretty soon they're all gone and won't come back no matter what I do.

Having spent all morning looking at forum posts here and elsewhere it seems that there's an unfortunate subset of users for whom none of the obvious fixes work. Does anyone have any less obvious fixes that they can share?

Thanks.

Answer 1

Even more weirdly, the other day the thumbnails just came back out of the blue.

Answer 2

Hi Jayant,

Thanks for your reply.

I tried the clean boot, but the problem was still there. (As an aside, the link you gave me to get the clean bot info didn't work.)

I also went through and tried (again) the first three methods in Anshul Kanna's post but they didn't work either (again). I couldn't use method four because I can't access the group policy editor (assume I have the Home version of Windows).

Weirdly, I'm now getting image files where even the icon doesn't display - all I get is the file name with a blank space above it. And I still get that thing where if I change to a larger or smaller view setting, the thumbnails come up but then they wink out and don't come back.

Thanks again.

Answer 3

Hello,

Thank you for visiting Microsoft Community and providing us with the detailed description about the issue.

As per the description, I understand that you are experiencing issue with thumbnails not displaying on the system.

I certainly understand your concern and will try my best to help you.

I really appreciate all your efforts in trying to fix the issue.

I would suggest you to try the following methods and check if that helps.

Method 1:

To diagnose the problem whether any third party program or application is causing the conflict, I would suggest you to try “clean boot” and check if it helps.

Placing your system in “Clean Boot” state helps in identifying if any third party applications or startup items are causing the issue. You need to follow the steps from the article mentioned below to perform a Clean Boot.

**How to perform a clean boot in Windows**

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/929135?wa=wsignin1.0

If the issue does not occur in “Clean Boot”, then you may determine which application/service on the computer is causing this issue. This can be done by following the instructions for “Windows 8.1 and Windows 8” given in the section “How to determine what is causing the problem by performing a Clean Boot” from the same given link.

**Note:**Refer "How to reset the computer to start normally after clean boot troubleshooting" to reset the computer to start as normal after troubleshooting.

If the issue persists, follow method 2

Method 2:

I would suggest you to refer to the suggestions provided by “Anshul Khanna” replied on April 9, 2013 in the following Microsoft Community link and check if that helps.

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows\_8-files/thumbnails-do-not-show-in-windows-8-explorer/e6e61638-25d2-45d7-a45e-edd8eaee3600

I hope this information is helpful.

Please do let us know if you need any further assistance, we will be glad to assist you.

Thank you.

Jayant