Windows Vista - Explorer - Toggle Displaying Thumbnails or Icons

SUMMARY: If thumbnails are not displaying in Windows Vista Explorer folders, or if you wish to turn off thumbnail display for speed, perform this tip.

Depending on your Windows Vista configuration, when opening folders in Explorer and viewing files as icons, image thumbnail previews may appear for many popular image file types.

Instead of seeing thumbnails, some people may see icons instead and not know how to view thumbnail previews. Others who are currently viewing thumbnails might rather see icons as thumbnail previews. Especially with folders containing many images, these previews may take time to render. Thus, this option can be tweaked:

1. Do one of the following:

* Click on the "Organize" button in an Explorer folder, and then choose "Folder and Search Options".

* Open a folder in Explorer. Press the ALT key to temporarily show the menu, and then select "Tools" - "Folder Options".

* Click the Windows/Start button, type "folder options", and press ENTER.

2. When the "Folder Options" multi-tabbed dialog box appears, click the "View" tab.

3. Check "Always show icons, never thumbnails" to display icons instead of thumbnails. If you wish to display thumbnails, uncheck this box.

4. Click "OK" to close the dialog box.