How do I change thumbnail on MP4 files on my PC? (Windows 11)

Question

It's extremely simple what I want to do, and yet despite scouring the entire internet for an hour or two (even watching a useless YouTube tutorial), I can't find a simple answer.

What I want to be able to do is to set the thumbnail for each of the videos on my PC individually from a certain frame or timestamp (whatever's most appropriate in the context of that particular video). I don't want all videos in a folder to be set to the same timestamp or percentage or anything. Right now, all the thumbnails showing on File Explorer are super random, some have the movie reel on the sides, while others don't, making them look like photos. It's an arbitrary, lawless wasteland in that folder on my PC. (This folder is actually on an external hard drive, but I doubt that should matter.)

I feel like this should totally be an option in the Photos app (which I use for both photos and videos), but I can't find it in there anywhere.

The only Microsoft article I saw on this subject was from 2016 and said something about it only being possible in an "asset library," and I have no idea what that even is.

I also heard a lot of people rave about how great an app called Icaros is at setting thumbnails, but I downloaded it and it doesn't do anything for me at all.

Can anyone help?

Answer 1

Icaros is mainly used to "reset folder settings" if, for some reason, your thumbnails aren't showing in your folder. It works great in that capacity.

TagEditor is what I use to "change" the thumbnail of an existing mp4. It's super easy to use. Here's a link with a short tutorial on how to use it and a link for downloading it.

**one thing he does not mention in the video is when you hit 'save' you need to let it process and wait until it says "The tags have been saved" before you close out the program. At that point, there's no need to refresh the window.

https://youtu.be/UrZMFFUsnzU

Answer 2

Hi

Welcome to the Microsoft community.

You can't modify thumbnails directly in windows. You may need to use some third-party tools or editing tools to complete. You can refer to the following similar links, although it is win8.1 topic, hoping to provide you with some ideas.

How to change the thumbnail preview of an mp4 file. - Microsoft Community

You are welcome to reply to this topic, and I sincerely thank you for your support of Microsoft products and services.

Best regards

Derrick Qian | Microsoft Community Support Specialist

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