General Enable or Disable Show Preview Handlers in Preview Pane of File Explorer in Windows 11


  • Staff
Preview_pane_banner.png

This tutorial will show you how to enable or disable showing preview handlers in the the preview pane of File Explorer for your account in Windows 10 and Windows 11.

The preview pane in File Explorer shows you the contents of a file, such as image or text files, without having to open it with an app.

Preview handlers show the content of text files (ex: .bat, .cmd, .html, .ps1, .reg, .txt, etc...) in the preview pane.

Reference:


Contents

  • Option One: Enable or Disable Show Preview Handlers in Preview Pane of File Explorer in Folder Options
  • Option Two: Enable or Disable Show Preview Handlers in Preview Pane of File Explorer using REG file


EXAMPLE: "Show preview handlers in preview pane" enabled and disabled

Show_preview_handlers_in_preview_pane-enabled.png
Show_preview_handlers_in_preview_pane-disabled.png





Option One

Enable or Disable Show Preview Handlers in Preview Pane of File Explorer in Folder Options


1 Open Folder Options.

2 Click/tap on the View tab. (see screenshot below)

3 Check (enable) or uncheck (disable - default) Show preview handlers in preview pane for what you want.

4 Click/tap on OK.

Show_preview_handlers_in_preview_pane.png





Option Two

Enable or Disable Show Preview Handlers in Preview Pane of File Explorer using REG file


1 Do step 2 (enable) or step 3 (disable) below for what you would like to do.

2 Enable Show Preview Handlers in Preview Pane of File Explorer

A) Click/tap on the Download button below to download the file below, and go to step 4 below.​

Enable_Show_preview_handlers_in_preview_pane.reg


(Contents of REG file for reference)
Code:
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced]
"ShowPreviewHandlers"=dword:00000001

3 Disable Show Preview Handlers in Preview Pane of File Explorer

This is the default setting.


A) Click/tap on the Download button below to download the file below, and go to step 4 below.​

Disable_Show_preview_handlers_in_preview_pane.reg


(Contents of REG file for reference)
Code:
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced]
"ShowPreviewHandlers"=dword:00000000

4 Save the .reg file to your desktop.

5 Double click/tap on the downloaded .reg file to merge it.

6 When prompted, click/tap on Run, Yes (UAC), Yes, and OK to approve the merge.

7 You can now delete the downloaded .reg file if you like.


That's it,
Shawn Brink


 

Attachments

  • Preview_pane.png
    Preview_pane.png
    1.7 KB · Views: 95
  • Disable_Show_preview_handlers_in_preview_pane.reg
    718 bytes · Views: 231
  • Enable_Show_preview_handlers_in_preview_pane.reg
    718 bytes · Views: 200
Last edited:
Back
Top Bottom