[How To] Disable Thumbnail Preview In Windows 8

In Windows 8, we’re already aware with the preview pane of folders. Sometimes it happens with us that we don’t want to display preview pane due to security reasons. Consider the following window, in which the preview pane is enable by default.

Now in this article, I’ll show you how you can disable the preview pane in folders using simple registry trick or via group policy trick. So without wasting your time anymore, lets share the way…

Page Contents

1

Disable Thumbnail Preview Using Registry Editor

1. Press + R and put regedit in Run dialog box to open Registry Editor (if you’re not familiar with Registry Editor, then click here). Click OK.

2. Navigate here:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer

3. In the right pane, create a DWORD named DisableThumbnails and put its value data equals to 1 in the following window :

4. Now navigate here:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Current\Version\ExplorerAdvanced

5. Create or modify DWORD IconsOnly and put its Value data equals to 1. That’s it. Close the Registry Editor and Reboot to get results.

After Reboot, you’ll see no longer preview pane in Explorer pane:

In case, if you want to enable preview pane, restore 0 in step 5 for Value data.

Disable Thumbnail Preview Using Local Group Policy Editor

1. Press  + R and put gpedit.msc in Run dialog box. Click OK.

2. Navigate here:

User Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> Windows Components -> Windows Explorer

3. In the right pane, double click on policy named Turn off the display of thumbnails and only display icons and you’ll get this:

4. Set following parameters for the display of preview in folders icon:

To Allow Display – Not Configured / Disabled

To Prevent Display – Enabled

Close the Group Policy Editor and get the results. This trick will work on Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP as well!