HEVC Video Extensions Don't Work Anymore

Hi everyone,

I installed the HEVC Video Extensions many months ago. I have noticed just recently that they have stopped working. I no longer get a thumbnail on HEVC videos. It's a paid addon too.

Can anyone help? I know I can post on MS support forums but in my experience, they are worse than awful.

Thanks :)

Have you tried installing this extension form the Microsoft store. I've seen reports of 3rd-party extensions not working when it comes to generating thumbnails for x265 videos in File Explorer.

HEVC Video Extensions from Device Manufacturer
It's free.

SlicEnDicE said:

Have you tried installing this extension form the Microsoft store. I've seen reports of 3rd-party extensions not working when it comes to generating thumbnails for x265 videos in File Explorer.

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It seems this is already installed on my PC, but when I go to the Installed Apps list it is not there. The other one I mentioned in my post is also from Microsoft.

Can anyone recommend an app to uninstall store apps?

swerd said:

It seems this is already installed on my PC, but when I go to the Installed Apps list it is not there. The other one I mentioned in my post is also from Microsoft.

Click to expand...

oh, ok...also seems the version I linked only works on laptops and desktops for OEM computers that has paid the license. The other option is indeed the one you have already installed. (Tested this on my DIY built computer)

What comes to uninstalling Store Apps, you don't need any apps, just right click in the Start Menu on the app you wanna get rid of. Some Store Apps can't be easily removed and should not be removed because there may be issues.

SlicEnDicE said:

What comes to uninstalling Store Apps, you don't need any apps, just right click in the Start Menu on the app you wanna get rid of. Some Store Apps can't be easily removed and should not be removed because there may be issues.

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It does not appear in the Start Menu either. Any tips?

swerd said:

It does not appear in the Start Menu either. Any tips?

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What does not appear? The HEVC codec pack?

SlicEnDicE said:

What does not appear? The HEVC codec pack?

Click to expand...

Yes :)

Ok, but why do you want to uninstall the extension? Does it not let you play the HEVC videos?

SlicEnDicE said:

Ok, but why do you want to uninstall the extension? Does it not let you play the HEVC videos?

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I want to try to uninstall/reinstall to see if I can get the thumbnails again. I use other apps (MPC-BE & VLC) so I don't actually need the codec to play anything.

Try this. Clear and Reset Thumbnail Cache in Windows 11 Tutorial

glasskuter said:

Try this. Clear and Reset Thumbnail Cache in Windows 11 Tutorial

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Thanks. Tried that and it didn't work.

If it were me, so I would know which way to jump, I would first prove if it's a windows problem, an account problem, or a onedrive problem..
Is the current default location of the user folder where these files reside Onedrive? (right click on user folder>properties>location tab)
If so, copy a couple of the files to a folder NOT located in Onedrive eg:downloads) Change to thumbnail view.Do they appear correctly there? If so, the issue is related to onedrive.

If they still appear incorrectly, prove whether the issue is a Windows problem or an account problem. A quick test would be to see if the thumbnails appear correctly using another user account. Copy a couple of the files to a flash drive. Make a new local account. Change it's account type to administrator. Restart the computer and log in to new account. Copy the files into the account. If they appear correctly in the new account, there is corruption in your user account. To play the files in this account you might have to install VLC in the account if it wasn't installed for all users.
(You can also temporarily activate the hidden administrator account for testing purposes if you do not want to create another account to test with. )

How to try to fix it will depend on which direction the troubleshooting points to.

swerd said:

Can anyone recommend an app to uninstall store apps?

Click to expand...

Revo Uninstaller free will cleanly remove Windows apps:

What I would start with, is to try see if default Windows Video player can even process the HEVC videos.

I would also like to know if any other video files and images get generated thumbnails.

There has also been reports of Explorer crashes when parsing HEVC videos on Windows 11. I don't own the codec so can't verify any issues. I used to have the free version on Windows 10 though. 11 doesn't seem to have this option anymore.

This seems to be installed by default now. I have a version


and everything works.I guess you can update the version via ms store.

MKV uses H264 MPEG-4 AVC by default...it is not HEVC

Also Windows default codec plays back this kind of video like a sack of potatoes. It is total rubbish stuttery mess.

I don't use Windows media player.
In addition, there's also software decoding.

Yes this shows that the mkv was indeed encoded in HEVC...but it does not help much in OPs situation. HEVC codec does not come with Windows 11 as it is a paid product. In Windows 10 you could grab it for free for a while on certain hardware.

The K-Lite CODEC Pack will solve this. All you need is the basic edition.

The CODEC from Microsoft has limited functionality. I just tried it on a system right now. No thumbnails with HEVC encoded MKV files. Also, if I set File explorer to show the Frame Height and Frame Width, it shows nothing. The instant I installed K-Lite Codec Pack, thumbnails started getting generated and the Frame Height and Frame Width properly show up in File Explorer.