Windows 10: PDF thumbnails

I’d like to learn how the file explorer preview pane display thumbnails of PDF documents. I need it to capture and then save the thumbnail of the first page of PDFs to a photo format (e.g., jpg, png, tiff, etc).

:)

 

PDF Thumbnail Preview in Windows Explorer without installed PDF Preview Handler?

Can PDF thumbnails in Windows Explorer (7 or 8 or 10) show the first page of the PDF file without having to install a custom PDF Preview Handler from Adobe or Foxit or from Tracker Software or from one of the other known preview providers?

Please note: I do NOT mean the specific File Preview pane in Windows Explorer where one can scroll through all the pages of a PDF document (which is provided by a PDF Preview Handler e.g. from Adobe)!

I explicitly mean the thumbnails inside the Windows Explorer browsing area when the Windows Explorer View Mode is set to THUMBNAILS.

If the answer is NO: Can you suggest a MINIMAL installation package for this functionality (thumbnails displaying PDF first page) without having to install Adobe Reader or one of those large PDF packages from one of the other PDF brands?

 

PDF thumbnails not showing in Windows 10 file explorer

In Acrobat Reader DC, go to Preferences > General and then select Enable PDF thumbnail previews in Windows Explorer.

This should show thumbnails in File Explorer. For some reason, my selection got turned off (not by me). Check your settings again. I have done this same step for numerous computers now, and so far they all work.

The first time you do this, Adobe Reader DC actually has a pop-up saying something like installing a add-on or extension. If you don't see this, then I suggest a reinstall of the latest DC.

 

Best free PDF software?

I use:

• UnityPDF to merge/split PDFs and to insert/extract pages

• doPDF to create PDFs from any program that is capable of printing

• Foxit Reader to view PDFs and to type in them