File Explorer Excel Preview Pane navigation

Question

I know every search I have done tells me this is not a possibility (and never has been), but I've been doing it this way for years! Up until THIS morning, I was able to go into File Explorer, RT click on the tab arrows and it would give me the list of tab names so I could select one and move directly to it.....all from the 'Preview pane' WITHOUT opening the file! Now this morning, I can arrow through the tabs and select them but if I have a larger file with many tabs, I don't want to have to arrow through each one.... and working on this large of a project that I am now, I don't want to have to open each file to just find the information on one tab. I can still access this feature on a couple of our computers (so I know it's a real thing) but not the main one I use. Has anyone else used this feature and know how to turn it back on? Is it a glitch somewhere? There was no recent update ran on my computer, so not sure why it turned this off just overnight!

Any help / insight would be GREATLY appreciated!! Thanks in advance!!

Answer 1

Hi Jessie,

Based on your sharing, this sounds like an Excel preview handler behavior. Since you have tested it still works on some other computers beside yours, it may depend on the Office build, preview handler registration, default app association, or a local Office/Windows preview component issue. But the issue starts this morning without any update ran, I would fall more into the Office component issue.

That said, I suggest first running Office Repair to see whether it helps:

• Close all Office applications (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, etc.)
• Go to Settings (or use Windows + I shortcut) > Apps > Installed Apps
• Find Microsoft 365/Office in the list > select the three dots (…) next to it and choose Modify.
• If prompted by User Account Control, select Yes.
• Run Quick Repair first. If the issue persists, run Online Repair later.

Note: This process requires stable internet connection and may take several minutes to complete.

You can give it a try and let me know whether it works. If you have any other questions, please feel free to reach out again in the comments on this post. I'm happy to assist you further

Thank you for your understanding and cooperation. I'm looking forward to your reply.

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