Disable .DWG Thumbnail Previews in Windows 7

[lamensterms]

Hey guys,

 

Just switched from XP (old faithful) to a new Win7 machine... I've used a little Win7 in the past and it's safe to say I am not it's greatest fan.

 

One of the features which had bugged me was the way in which Win7 manages it's file thumbnail previews. If you want thumbnails for images (.JPG, .BMP, etc) in a particular folder... you must enable thumbnails for all folders for as many file types as Windows can handle (including .DWGs). This doesn't suit me, as I like to be able to see thumbnails for images, but not for .DWGs. I know of no standard/easy facility to enable thumbnails for only selected folders and file types.

 

So I have come across a way to stop Windows producing these thumbnails...

 

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_7-files/how-to-disable-thumbnails-for-tif-files-only/16c6c286-3bb9-489e-b50d-ba22debe6c7c

 

... is the link. In that thread they are talking specifically about .TIFF files, but it is easy enough to adapt the instructions for .DWGs.

 

Please note: the tweak does involve a REGEDIT. So it is, of course, experiment at your own risk.

 

Just thought some folk might find it handy.

[RobDraw]

... you must enable thumbnails for all folders for as many file types as Windows can handle (including .DWGs). This doesn't suit me, as I like to be able to see thumbnails for images, but not for .DWGs.

 

Did you mean all files instead of folders? Because I have different settings for different folders.

 

Another option would be to keep images and .dwgs in separate folders because you can have different settings for different folders.

[lamensterms]

Hi Rob,

 

Thanks for the reply. On my machine (64bit) if I toggle the 'thumbnails vs icons' setting in 1 folder... It affects every folder. Every file type in every folder.

 

Can you please elaborate on your method to have separate settings for separate folders?

[RobDraw]

Every Windows 7/64 bit machine that I've worked on has been set-up that way. I used to know how to change that setting in previous versions but couldn't tell you off the top of my head. It's probably different in 7 anyway.