How to Enable or Disable Media and Video Thumbnail Preview in Windows XP
Windows XP automatically generate thumbnail preview for images, pictures, photos, videos, HTML pages and other media clips with format supported by the operating system. The image or media preview is shown in the Details pane on the left of Windows Explorer, or when the files are viewed in Thumbnails view.
However, some users may not want or prefer the automatic preview and thumbnail generation when browsing files list. The preview hide the icon of the files, and doesn’t allow users to instant know the format or extension of the files, such as whether a video is of .avi, .wmv or .mpg format. Beside, the process to show the thumbnail preview may slow down the file listing process when opening folder with video files. Beside, the preview on no codec or corrupted movie or video clip (i.e. no index from a partial download) may cause system problems such as Windows XP stops responding or freezing with 100% CPU utilization, and prevent users from deleting, renaming or moving the file until the file is completely loaded. The error happens because Windows needs a proper codec in order to correctly and validly create a thumbnail for video media. Without codec, or codec is broken or buggy will have problem.
To turn off, remove or disable video and media thumbnail preview in Windows XP, and fix above issues relating to video (AVI) problems, simply issue the following command in a Command Prompt window. To open Command Prompt window, type “Cmd” in Start -> Run box.
regsvr32 /u shmedia.dll
It’s important to note that once the command above is run, the thumbnail preview will be disabled and will not be shown or displayed for all video, movie and other media files. And, users also lose the ability to see the summary properties in the tooltip and file properties dialog for AVI, WMA, WMV, ASF and WAV files.
To re-enable, or turn off the media preview again, use the following command:
regsvr32 shmedia.dll
There is another trick to disable and turn off preview thumbnail generation for image and photos, which use Windows Picture and Fax Viewer.
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Entries (RSS)
February 8th, 2010 08:44
‘users also lose the ability to see the summary properties in the tooltip and file properties dialog for AVI, WMA, WMV, ASF and WAV files.’..
seems tooltips and properties dialofg still appear .. however the desired effect wa to disble the media preview wich worked just fine ,, thanks
January 28th, 2010 03:51
holp crap = it workd!
thx
December 24th, 2009 09:46
YES this is VERY much appreciated
November 8th, 2009 23:37
TY dude
October 13th, 2009 22:30
Yaaaaay! The command worked! Thank you so very much
October 10th, 2009 00:27
Thanks….yes it re-enabled by thumbnails…Many thanks!!!
September 10th, 2009 12:43
Thanks!…It Works!
August 14th, 2009 10:37
Another question, sounds stupid but this is serious..
Anyone knows how to disable/block/lock multimedia playback on xp?
August 10th, 2009 13:19
I am having trouble finding ways how to fix my video thumbnails. Thank you for this one. Just placed the “regsvr32 shmedia.dll” command and all my video thumbnails appear.
June 15th, 2009 17:48
Very helpful indeed…before using this, the thumbnails previews use up lots of ram, and sometimes the windows explorer freezes right there. It really pisses me off.
But hey thanks to this article….problem solved…
May 27th, 2009 18:46
Any idea if it also works with XP 64bit? It doesn’t seem to work for me.
December 14th, 2008 19:27
Thanks, the command worked.
October 28th, 2008 05:49
regsvr32 shmedia.dll did the trick. Thanks
October 3rd, 2008 04:47
[...] may be causing the problem. Try turning off thumbnail preview. You can find instructions here And as I said before the indexing service is not responsible for generating the [...]
August 23rd, 2008 08:05
Very helpfull thanks
August 10th, 2008 23:49
Can someone plzzzzzz tell me for vista
I need to get thumbnail preview BADLY for my Vista ultimate 32.
see the screen shot here:
http://www.tinypic.ws/files/g8fjcm5nty9ifrdpi5iz.jpg
Anyone for vista??
July 26th, 2008 05:46
Hi!
This worked with all my .avi files but I’m unable to disable my MPEG-4 movies preview… Is there any other command I could use?
Thanks in advance
July 22nd, 2008 17:27
I lost my ‘wmv’ thumbnail preview, but used regsvr /u shmedia dll to turn all displays off, then used regsvr 32 shmedia dll to turn all back on, and its All ok now. I was using K- lite mega codec-pack which didnt solve the prob(may have contributed) but this did. Thanks, much appreciated.
July 11th, 2008 03:10
Lost my movie thumbnails, got them back thanks to you !
THANKS !!!
April 5th, 2008 14:45
Question, Si jamais c’est sous windows 2000, quel commande serai ?
March 17th, 2008 00:18
[...] see how to disable video preview. Get help or contribute tips or tricks at My Digital Life [...]