Enable Previews in Windows Vista Folders with Preview Pane
If you’re using Microsoft Office 2007, you will notice that it has a nice and handy feature called previews. The previewers which supported by the preview handlers allow users to view or display the contents of documents, emails, messages, attachments, workbooks, videos, audios, presentations and other supported files on screen, without having to open it. For example, in Outlook 2007, users can view the contents of a email message without the need to open it, they can need to select the message in mail folder’s list view and outlook will render the email and display the message in preview pane. The new previews feature also allows users to even view message attachments in the same preview pane, without having to double-click an attachment to open it in the appropriate viewer.
Windows Vista also offers and supports similar preview pane that is accessible from any folder in the shell window. The preview handlers for Windows Vista, Outlook 2007 and Office 2007 are about the same, and the handlers can support Word documents, PowerPoint presentations, Excel spreadsheets, font files, video and audio files, and a variety of other file types that are commonly sent as attachments such as images and photos.

To enable the preview pane in Windows Vista, simply launch any Explorer window in folder view. At the folder menu, the select Organize, and then click on Layout, and finally select Preview Pane.
Related Articles
- Free Download: Vista and Office 2007 Preview Handler Pack to Support More File Types
- Download .cs, .vb, .js and .sql Files Code Preview Handler for Vista and Outlook 2007
- Foxit PDF Preview Handler Free Download
- Free Download: Preview Handler Association Editor to Group Same Type of File with Different Extensions
- Modify Vista and Office 2007 File and Attachment Preview Handlers to Support Foxit PDF Reader
- Where is Thumbs.db in Vista?
- Automatically Expand Navigation Pane Tree to Current Folder in Windows 7
- Display and Show Classic Navigation Tree Pane in Windows 7 Explorer (for Users Folder, Control Panel, Recycle Bin and CD/DVD/BD Drives)
- Reveal or Hide Windows System Files and Folders
- Fix Classic Menu Bar Cannot Be Close or Go Away in Windows Vista File Explorer










































December 17th, 2009 00:42
Btw you can also get the Vista and Windows 7 preview pane feature on Windows XP Explorer for free just by using i.e. some 3rd party file preview softwares and MS Windows Search as well: http://www.winmatrix.com/forums/index.php?/topic/19634-get-windows-vista-like-explorer-and-search-preview-pane-for-xp/ yea it’s very useful anyways imho, good luck
December 16th, 2009 04:33
Thx dude worked on windows 7 idk how i got it first on O_o Lol ty.
April 11th, 2009 06:41
RAR preview handler please anyone?
February 14th, 2007 00:17
[...] you would guess that all these files will be previewable in Windows Vista or Microsoft Outlook 2007 preview pane. But in actual reality, it’s not as not all file types and file extensions are associated [...]
February 13th, 2007 17:38
[...] you want to have the ability to preview source code files that sent to you by email as attachments in Microsoft Outlook 2007 or located on [...]
December 21st, 2006 16:55
[...] Windows Vista and Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 has built-in previews functionality which enables you to preview or view the contents of certain files without actually opening it. The build-in previews feature comes with preview handlers that support Word documents, PowerPoint presentations, Excel spreadsheets, font files, video files, audio files, and a few other file types that are common and used regularly as email attachments. However, if there’s no supported preview handler for a particular file type, such as .aspx source code file, .zip, .rar or other files, you won’t be able to just click on it and view the contents automatically in the preview pane. Luckily, Windows Vista and Office Outlook 2007 allow developers to develop and implement custom preview handlers for any file type, which after registering the handlers, users can instantly gain preview capabilities for those file types in Outlook 2007 and Windows Vista. Vista and Office 2007 Preview Handler Pack is one such custom previewers or preview handlers that provides support for .cs, .aspx and .sql source codes. With the handler pack installed, you can just click on the file ending with extension of .cs, .aspx and .sql with preview pane on, and instantly view the file content in the preview pane. [...]