Windows 7 How to View PDF Thumbnails in Windows 7 32-bit Systems?

[Question Mark]

Hello,

I've spent the last couple of days trying desperately to resolve this issue. I have looked everywhere but cannot find an answer...
PROBLEM: I have thousands of PDFs in hundreds of folders. When I go to a particular folder, I use the slider to change the Explorer views from "Content" to "Extra Large Icons" but cannot get a thumbnail preview of the PDFs - all I see is an Acrobat Icon preview.
I know that this is an issue on the X64-bit verson of Windows 7, but I'm running 32-bit Windows 7 (Ultimate)!
ATTEMPTS: I've tried several ways to resolve this but nothing worked so far. Specifically, I:
1. Made sure that the File Type Associations are correct.
2. Unchecked Folder options>View>"Always show icons, never thumbnails".
3. Made sure that Folder options>View> "Display file icon on thumbnails" is checked.
4. Made sure that Performance>Settings>"Show thumbnails instead of icons" is checked.
5. Tried the simple method suggessted at other forums: going into Adobe and opening the directory to preview the files as thumbnails from there and then refreshing the folder in Windows Explorer to display a thumbnail preview of the PDF file - Didn't work either!
6. Ran "Repair Acrobat Installation".
7. Uninstalled and Reinstalled Acrobat 9 (including associated registry files).
8. Installed the latest version of Reader.
9. Tried installing other software (PDF-XChange and Foxit) but these don't create PDF thumbnails in Windows Explorer either.

Please note that all other files (such as JPGs and WMVs) show thumbnails as usual in my Windows Explorer.
Also, there appears to be an unofficial fix but it only addresses X64 systems:
www.pretentiousname.com/adobe_pdf_x64_fix/index.html

Can ANYONE please HELP? I want my thumbnails back
Thanx in advance!

 

[Saltgrass]

I will mention this in case if might have any relevance. Using Elmer's suggestion, my PDF files were showing with thumbnails---until today!!!

I did three things and I do not believe the first two would be related since your problem started before the updates were issued.

Two Updates were installed, .net 3.5 for SP1 and C++ for SP1(SP1 was installed yesterday). I have looked at uninstalling them, but it does not seem possible.

Also I changed this RAID setup from Basic Drives to Dynamic Drives. Why Dynamic Drives might be involved, I do not know, but whatever caused it, I can no longer get the PDF to show thumbnails on this x64 version.

There is a chance SP1 is involved since I do not remember if I refreshed the Desktop after that install.

My 32 bit version continues to work normally, but it does not use Dynamic Drives, so maybe that rules out SP1.

If there is anything you want me to try, I do have a 32 bit system I can mess with.

Edit: Looks like the possibility has not panned out. I am now able to change the Thumbnails even with the Dynamic Drives. I am working on one other thing, but it is also not showing consistency.

 

[Saltgrass]

I have been on my 32 bit Windows 7 install, which shows thumbnails fine, to see if I could find anything. The .pdf I have been watching are on my Desktop, so another location might use a different cache file.

It seems from testing that the thumbnails are kept in a thumbcache_idx.db file. It resides in the following folder:

C:\Users\You\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Explorer\

I believe you indicated you have already deleted such a folder, but if not, you might try renaming it. Put a different extension on it and it will be recreated while you watch. Then refresh the Desktop to see if anything happens. I have not tried renaming the other cache data base files.

It also appears a utility called AcroRd32Info.exe is responsible in some way for replacing the thumbnails. It is in the Adobe Reader folders here:

C:\Program Files\Adobe\Reader 9.0\Reader\ and in my case is 16K dated 6/19/2010. This, of course, will probably be different for you.

If your thumbnails have not come back, you might try right clicking the utility and selecting "Run as Admin". If it doesn't replace the thumbnails, maybe it will generate an error message that might give you a clue.

Your Thumbcache_idx.db file should be about 4K if it is just about empty. If it is larger, then it probably has something in it.

The only other thing I could think of is related to permissions for the cache files and the Reader Utilities. But if you repaired the install, they should be OK.

 

[meger]

i had the same problem and using ashampoo uninstaller i removed all adobe files twice and still no thumbnails
till i removed the extension (with that uninstaller, but any one would do) .pdf then the program noted that
there is a auto pdf file extension, which when removed caused all the pdf files to change to a blank icon (different
from previouslly). and on the safe side i removed all adobe folders and files from all users and the thumbnails returned.

 

[hbaber]

Hi ,
open PDF > Go to Edit > click Preferences > General > basic Tools > Click Enable Thumbnail previews in windows explorer ! Thats it it will install a small addon itself and way go .....

hbaber

 

[Neemobeer]

This post is 5 years old...