Windows 10: How To Turn Off Thumbnail Preview in Task Bar

As of a recent Windows 11 update ~May 2025, the instructions in this post are no longer accurate and I am seeing many thumbnail previews. https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/all/how-to-turn-off-thumbnail-preview-in-task-bar/e0696863-d800-453c-9fa7-606d74e964fc Was redirected from this question: https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/all/adjust-taskbar-hover-over-bubbles-to-show-only/cf6dc4a5-f4b8-4004-ab45-baec7bb5920f How can I disable the thumbnail preview when hovering over a taskbar icon, and instead show a list of the windows?

:)

 

How To Turn Off Thumbnail Preview in Task Bar

I refer to this question: Redirecting and similar.

No one of the posted answers work.

My question:

How to disable RELIABLE the thumbnail preview so only the list appears.

I mean the instance list, which is shown when too many instances of the program [for example of a browser] are open.

I did this:

1. Cleared the thumbnail cache.
   
2. Rebuilt the thumbnail cache.
   
3. Set the value "turn off taskbar thumbnail".
   
4. Reboot
   

Nothing helps, I still see the thumbnail.

Thx

 

Preview and thumbnails of pdf files are not available

Hi Michelle, my name is Martin and I'm an Independent Advisor. I'll try to help you here.

Preview and Thumbnails of PDF files can be disabled on your PC . . .

I suggest that you follow steps below to enable this feature

Start Adobe Reader

Tap on Edit in the menu bar and select Preferences

Under Categories highlight General

Put the checkmark next to the box Enable PDF thumbnail previews in Windows Explorer

I also recommend the article - Enable thumbnail of PDFs in Windows Explorer to get further information

https://helpx.adobe.com/acrobat/using/enable-pd...

 

Task View hover on Virtual desktops no longer previews the desktop

After recent upgrade, when I hover over the virtual desktop, it no longer shows the desktop preview. Still shows the thumbnail but not the full preview. This was critical to my workflow, how do I re-enable this.

Steps:

Hover over the task view icon on the task bar. Thumbnails show for all the virtual desktops.

Hover over any Virtual desktop thumbnail, the label shows but not the full preview does not.

Expected the full preview of the desktop to show as in previous versions of Windows 11.