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File explorer: PDF's preview showing "INDEX OF" in network folders

Anonymous
2022-03-07T17:03:43+00:00

Hi,

This issue started today at work on several computers on both Windows 11 and Windows 10. Could it be related to a recent Windows update?

Pdf files (and only PDF's) previews aren't working in any network folders, Instead of showing the file preview it shows "INDEX OF:"

Previews work normally for excel, word, etc.

Weird stuff.

Windows for home | Windows 11 | Files, folders, and storage

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

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  1. Anonymous
    2022-05-01T02:05:51+00:00

    There is a newer fix that has been found that doesn't require constantly changing a registry key. Instead you can change a single key which tells Microsoft Edge to stop changing the default .pdf previewer.

    You can find the instructions HERE and scroll down to "Method 1: Stop Edge Setup from changing the default Preview Handler".

    I found the information posted on the Foxit forums by TWB.

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  2. Anonymous
    2022-04-23T10:39:42+00:00

    YET ANOTHER SIMPLE AND EASY "FIX", aside to the given solution with the Registry, is to use the option "PDF preview" from "File Explorer add-ons", directly available in Microsoft PowerToys App. I am already using PowerToys so activating this solved the issue immediately.

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  3. Anonymous
    2022-04-19T07:38:18+00:00

    I wanted to report that I have found the issue.

    If the path to the file or the filename itself contains a pound sign # it looks like the previewer might be disregarding all the path that comes after the pound. Removing the # solves the issue.

    If the # is the first character of a folder or a file, the previewer will show you the index of the folder.

    If the # is in the middle of the file, the previewer will throw an error

    I suspect like the previewer is not escaping the # character and therefore treats all characters after it as if it was a commentary, like when you write comments while programming.

    I tested it with multiple machines and the same problems are happening on all of them. So far none of the updates I uninstalled seemed to have solved the problem.

    This totally looks like a bug on the previewer.

    I noticed and verified that this will happen on winver 20H2.

    winver 20H1 does not have this issue.

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  4. Anonymous
    2022-04-12T20:29:11+00:00

    I'm glad I could help!

    I have seen that issue before. I think I had to repair or reinstall Foxit to fix that.

    You could try to follow Foxit's steps here: https://kb.foxitsoftware.com/hc/en-us/articles/360040660571-register-plugins-for-previewer That might help.

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  5. Anonymous
    2022-04-12T17:36:55+00:00

    You're awesome! It worked! I am so happy, I can't even explain how happy!

    Thank you so much!

    One last quick question for you; I can now view the document but it's small, before I could see it in a bigger format.

    Is there a way that I can fix that?

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