Thumbnails Missing in Vista Explorer Large & Extra Large View

[securetype]

I've noticed that thumbnail images are missing in the Vista explorer (View > Large/Extra Large Icon). I used to see a preview image in the explorer window without having to launch Acrobat Reader version 7.xxxx. I never use the preview pane, it was never necessary when the thumbnails provided a quick look inside the PDF document.

However, after installing version 8.1.1, these thumbnail images have disappeared and are now replaced by the generic Acrobat icon which came with the latest version. What's with that??? Do we HAVE TO upgrade from the free reader version to the pay version to get these previews?

This is not a Vista problem! This happened just after installing Reader 8. Images such as bitmaps, Photoshop psd files, png's, video mpg's, mpeg's and wmv's, for example, all display thumbnail images of the content in a Vista explorer folder window. But the PDF files only show the generic icon.

OS Name Microsoft® Windows Vista Home Premium
Version 6.0.6000 Build 6000

[_Robin_Paijmans_]

In fact, it is an upgrade problem. I had the same problem on my computer (Vista Ultimate 32bit, Acrobat Reader 8.1.1). Then I looked on my wife's laptop (Vista Home Premium 32bit, Acrobat Reader 8.1.1) and she does have the thumbnail previews. I checked all the settings on both computers, and they were identical.

In fact, the only way in which they differed was that my install of Reader 8.1.1 was new, whereas my wife's started out on her computer as Reader 8.0, and was updated to 8.1.1 through the Update tool. Thus I found the following solution:

1. Uninstall Reader 8.1.1. This leaves some files behind (notably the Preview Handler which I suspect is giving all the grief), so restart the computer and then delete the Adobe Reader folder altogether.

2. Install Reader 8.0. Adobe's site does not have this download anymore, but you can still find it here:

http://www.mydigitallife.info/2007/01/30/download-adobe-reader-acrobat-pdf-8-standalone-offline-installer/

Download the Reader 8.0 installer in your preferred language.

After you download and run it, for reasons best known to itself it unpacks an installation folder called "Reader 8.0" in C:|Users\(your name)\AppData\LocalLow\Netopsystems\temp. It may then complain that there is not enough space in the "temp" folder to proceed with the install. No worries: just move the whole "Reader 8.0" folder to C: or any other partition. then run Setup.exe inside "Reader 8.0" and it should work. Once Reader 8.0 is installed, restart the PC again.

3. Now you still want to upgrade to 8.1.1., if only because it has an Outlook 2007 preview handler (and an explorer preview pane handler for Vista). start Acrobat Reader 8.0, goto help and select "Check for Updates". It will now announce that Reader 8.1.1. is available. Go ahead and update.

This is the only way you can update to 8.1.1. while retaining the thumbnail previews, as it only replaces certain files. A straight install of 8.1.1. will not work as that replaces everything.

Hope this is useful. It worked for me.

[securetype]

Thank you for the tip, Robin.

Followed your recommendations precisely and in addition, deleted all references to Acrobat and Reader in the registry . . . and all Reader or Acrobat folders in the Program Files folder after uninstalling.

Running the 8.0 install was a pain in the ass due to the "not enough space in the "temp" folder" message . . . the Reader 8.0 folder in C:|Users\(your name)\AppData\LocalLow\Netopsystems\temp disappears quickly if you don't catch it at the right time . . . but got it done.

Still no explorer thumbnails in 8.0 after a spot check. Upgraded to 8.1.1 from within Reader 8.0 (except the language pack) . . . *still* no thumbnails in Vista explorer View > Extra Large or Large icon mode. Furthermore, now I don't see any previews in the preview pane! (not that I use that feature anyway)

Adobe really needs to get its install act together! I imagine it will take them a few months to figure this out, if they even notice it at all. Everything was fine with 7.xxx. Maybe I'll clean everything out and downgrade. Moral of this story: NEVER enable the automatic upgrade feature of ANY software. ALWAYS upgrade manually and ONLY if you really have to and ONLY if you have a certain path toward getting back to the previous version. Don't count on system restore points, because they don't always work (and they will delete any downloaded .exe files while keeping your "data" intact).

[_Robin_Paijmans_]

In regedit, what value do you get under Computer\HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.pdf? the "Default" key should read "AcroExch.Document". I have noticed that this is not always the case. May be the problem?

[securetype]

Interesting . . . I get an error message if I even click on the .pdf folder:

".pdf cannot be opened."
"An error is preventing this key from being opened."
"Details: Access is denied."

I cannot even export the .pdf key in order to peek inside, I get the following error message:

"The selected branch does not exist. Make sure the correct path is given."

Also, I cannot delete the key:

"Cannot delete .pdf: error while deleting key."

Any ideas? Uninstall Reader, try to fix registry, reinstall up to 8.0 (but not 8.1.1)?

[securetype]

OK, I unstalled Reader, deleted the program directory & reinstalled a ground-up version 8.0.0.

No thumbnails in Vista explorer View > Extra Large or Large icon mode

>>>In regedit, what value do you get under Computer\HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.pdf? the "Default" key should read "AcroExch.Document". I have noticed that this is not always the case. May be the problem?

Had to take ownership and extend permissions for .pdf, values are as follows:

(Default) = AcroExch.Document
Content Type = application/pdf

This key exports as follows:

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.pdf]
"Content Type"="application/pdf"
@="AcroExch.Document"

Well, no thumbnails. Guess I'll stick with 8.0.0 & leave it alone for now. Bummer.

[_Alan_Sholto_]

I had a similar problem and solved it easily.
I right-clicked on the file and replaced adobe reader with another program like Notepad using open with... choose program and choosing another program. That replaced the icon with notepad's icon (which is temporarily wrong). Then, I redid that step and brought back adobe reader and lo and behold, the icon reappeared.

[securetype]

Thank you for the lead, Alan!

Unfortunately, I just tried that (Vista Home Ed.). Such a procedure will definitely restore the Adobe icon, because first, the generic notepad icon appeared, then, when restoring the default opening program for .pdf file, the generic red Adobe Reader 8 icon reappeared.

However, I'm not looking for the restoration of the *icon*. I need to see *thumbnail views* of pdf documents in a Vista explorer folder window *without* opening it. This is particularly handy when sifting through CAD drawings which have been printed to pdf file format. You actually see a small drawing when in "Extra Large Icon" mode . . . you do not see the red Adobe icon. (I do not bother with the Vista "Preview Pane" layout, because it's a huge waste of screen space and because I don't see pdf previews there either)

What maddening about this is the fact that I used to see the thumbnails, just as I easily see thumbnails of .bmp, .jpg, .wma & .mpeg/.mpg visual formats . . . until I "upgraded" from Reader 7 or 8.0 to 8.1.1. Every other Win XP Home ed. computer I have seen in my office also shows thumbnails of pdf document contents.

So this is an Adobe problem, as far as I'm concerned. I've exhausted all remedies, from ground up Reader re-installs, to registry purges to cleaning and rebuilding thumbnail caches to Foxit pdf reader and it's downloadable preview handler. Moral of the story: If it's an Adobe software product *and* if it ain't broke, *don't* fix it!

But many thanks, anyway! Your suggestion was definitely worth a try!

[_Robert_Blanch_]

I've been having this same problem. I have found a way to manually generate the thumbnail by opening Adobe Reader. Go to File > Open, navigate to the folder where you want to generate thumbnails, and change the view to Extra Large Icons. Once the preview is generated, you will be able to see the thumbnails in Windows Explorer as well.

[securetype]

Doesn't work for me.

[_Jeff_Bert_]

I had this exact problem... Thumbnail views worked in XP Explorer with 8.0 then the auto update to 8.1 caused them to stop working.

I found a solution that is very simple:

1) Open Adobe
2) Hit "Help" at the top and then "Repair Adobe Installation"
3) Reboot after repair done.

fixed. Hope this helps.

[securetype]

Thank you for the helpful tip! In fact, PDF Thumbnail images are easy to fix for Windows XP and they appear on every XP computer I've seen. However, they are GONE in Vista and nobody at Adobe or M$ is addressing this problem.

[_server_]

**Crossposted**

The thumbnails on my vista system are also not showing properly. It is very strange because I do have a SINGLE sole thumbnail of a pdf file displaying properly but the rest of my pdf files are all generic red acrobat icon. I am determined to get to the bottom of this as I have tons of ebooks and pdf files that I need to view in thumbnail format.

The roxio forum were also talking about loosing thumbnails in vista's explorer. The techs there claim its a vista problem and will wait till MS addresses the issues. However, I am not completely convinced.

The fact that we seen it work partially with some systems and the fact that I can generate a single thumbnail tells me there is more to it than meets the eye.

I suspect a registry tweak will solve all the problems.

Here's what I found so far.

On my XP system the thumbs works perfectly.
In the taskmanager I noticed that there is an auxiliary component
to acrobat that runs along side with the main executable;
"AcroRd32Info.exe" this file is what causes explorer to generate the thumbnails and is triggered only when the mouse hovers over an acrobat file.

With Vista Biz, I noticed that in taskmanager the AcroRd32Info.exe is missing. When I attempt to manually run this file, it fails to run with no error message. So my next guess is that some service might be blocking the exe from running or got disable during some tweaking.

I have another system that is identical to mine and brand new. I will test further. If someone can verify if AcroRd32Info.exe runs in there vista taskmanager and see the thumbnails appears or not that would be great.

Thanks
al

[_server_]

Well, that didn't take too long. I had to understand which file invoked the thumbs before I could address the problem. The issue is clearly an acrobat one. I had the wrong file, I was looking in the reader directory instead of the Pro directory, its was acrobatinfo.exe not acroRd32Info.exe that I was looking for. So now I had a clue. Acrobat Reader was not working in vista, but Pro was. I re-installed Pro and did an update. Once this was done, I opened reader pro and then explorer and made sure the default was set to details, then I re-associated pdf files to reader pro and switched to large icons. In a matter of moments, my thumbnails came back.

When I updated the pro version, reader started to crash but the thumbs still appeared. When I looked at taskmanager, acrobatinfo.exe was there so that made sense. Why reader pro crashed is beyond me. I downgraded back to pro 8.0 and all is well.

[securetype]

>>>So now I had a clue. Acrobat Reader was not working in vista, but Pro was.

That's exactly the point. Adobe wants everybody to pay $$$ and upgrade to Pro, otherwise no more thumbnails in basic reader. In essence, the update from 8.0 to 8.1.x is really a "downgrade".

Their programs (especially the CS3 suite Photoshop, Flash, etc.) are getting bloated and buggier with each "update". There are days I can't even start Flash Professional and Photoshop CS3 and I have to run system restore to get them working again. An exhaustive gOOgle search for fixes and workarounds is fruitless . . . uninstall, clean out registry, reinstall, update, roll-back . . . you name it, I've tried 'em all.

[_server_]

I feel your pain. I'm setting up a new system with vista and its been hit or miss with apps that are not ready for prime time. Therefore I have adopted a "test first" policy as far as buying the pro versions of this or that. If you're good at googling you should be able to find a testing copy of Acrobat Pro but I recommend you don't do the update. Only when I see stability in the application, will I fork out money for their coders. Just as nobody wants to pay for a car that works some of the time Nobody likes to pay for
beta apps disguised as pro vista compatible.


good luck and regards,

[_Cindy_Owens_]

Right...

I've been having the same problems with thumbnails and thought you guys were smart so I followed your advise. Nope, no good. Running Vista Ultimate 32-bit. Then, after changing the "Open With" options a dozen times, I checked the Folder Options in the Control Panel. Under the View Tab, it was changed to "Always show icons, not thumbnails". I originally had thumbnails when I installed Vista but about a week or so ago, it all changed and I have no idea how or why.
But making that change in the Folder Options fixed it all. AND, I'm running Adobe Acrobat 8.1.2. Perhaps this will help others, perhaps not. ...

[_Cindy_Owens_]

Right... I've been having the same problems with thumbnails and thought you guys were smart so I followed your advise. Nope, no good. Running Vista Ultimate 32-bit. Then, after changing the "Open With" options a dozen times, I checked the Folder Options in the Control Panel. Under the View Tab, it was changed to "Always show icons, not thumbnails". I originally had thumbnails when I installed Vista but about a week or so ago, it all changed and I have no idea how or why. But making that change in the Folder Options fixed it all. AND, I'm running Adobe Acrobat 8.1.2. Perhaps this will help others, perhaps not. ...

[_Cindy_Owens_]

Sorry for the double entry...

[_Ritzput_]

I went onto Adobe chat and found the answer:
I checked the Folder Options in the Control Panel. Under the View Tab, it
was changed to "Always show icons, not thumbnails". I originally didn't have
that checked. Making that change in the Folder Options fixed it all. AND,
I'm running Adobe Acrobat 8.1.2 in Vista. Perhaps this will help others,.

I can also say do NOT EVER DOWNLOAD SERVICE PACK I. It causes too many
problems. Micorsoft even has special FREE tech support= 866-234-6020 so what
does that tell you. I spent 68 minutes with tech taking over my laptop to
create new profile in outlook because i kept getting data error message
everytime i opened and my reminders didn't work right either....comman lines
didn't work either. (see my other entry in outlook)
Hopefully, you can make these suggestions with those with same issues.

[_Ritzput_]

Simpler sollution...it is caused by Adobe 8.1.2 upgrade:

I checked the Folder Options in the Control Panel. Under the View Tab, it
was changed to "Always show icons, not thumbnails". I originally didn't have
that checked. Making that change in the Folder Options fixed it all. AND,
I'm running Adobe Acrobat 8.1.2 in Vista. Perhaps this will help others,.

I can also say do NOT EVER DOWNLOAD SERVICE PACK I. It causes too many
problems. Micorsoft even has special FREE tech support= 866-234-6020 so what
does that tell you. I spent 68 minutes with tech taking over my laptop to
create new profile in outlook because i kept getting data error message
everytime i opened and my reminders didn't work right either....comman lines
didn't work either. (see my other entry in outlook)
Hopefully, you can make these suggestions with those with same issues.

[_Ritzput_]

I had opposit problem..i DID wnat to see adobe thumbnails so if you want to be able to see actual document that was scanned:

I checked the Folder Options in the Control Panel. Under the View Tab, takeout check box next to "Always show icons, not thumbnails".

[securetype]

>>>I checked the Folder Options in the Control Panel. Under the View Tab, takeout check box next to "Always show icons, not thumbnails".

Tried that, doesn't work, never has.

Recently I had to do a factory-fresh, ground-up reinstall of Vista from my recovery set.

After this virgin reinstall of windows, thumbnail images of the contents of the pdf files *were visible* in "large" and "extra large icon view" (preview pane not needed).

As soon as Adobe reader 8.1.1 and 8.1.2 updated, that broke the thumbnails and now all I see is the generic red reader icon. It is impossible to fix that by uninstalling Reader and/or reverting to a previous edition.

Furthermore, the Reader update broke thumbnails for Foxit also. Even if I completely uninstall Adobe reader.

Service pack 1 is irrelevant to the missing thumbnails problem. Thumbnails were missing long before I installed that, hoping M$ and Adobe would have put their heads together by now and fixed this stupid problem. No dice.

PDF previews are also known to be missing in Outlook 2007.

[_dryeena_]

Hi! I just got my stuff working again!

What I did was VERY simple.. and F*** adobe for making it so hard to isolate.

Steps:

Uninstall Adobe Reader..

Fixed mine... hope it helps

[_Kochin_]

Here is how I fixed my missing PDF thumbnail problem.

1. Run "Disk Cleanup" tool.
2. Make sure the checkbox next to Thumbnails in the "Files to delete" list is checked.
3. Click "Ok" to let it do the job removing all thumbnails.
4. Open the folder that contains PDF files, and view it in the Icon View. All the thumbnails should be automatically recreated.