Enabling pop-up image previews in Explorer

Philip Goddard

New Member
I'm in the process of rebuilding my whole software setup since a full reinstall of Vista just a few days ago. One thing that is lacking now, which I had in my original installation, is an informative file-tip including an actual preview, which popped up for any image file in the Explorer 'Details' list as I hovered my mouse pointer over it. This occurred both in Explorer and in Powerdesk, my primary file manager.

When I found this extremely helpful feature lacking in the new Vista installation I assumed that it must have been a result of one of my installed image-related programs, and that it would restore once I'd reinstalled all of those. However, they are now all installed, and I've associated XnView with all image files, as was the case before, and I still don't get those excellent pop-up preview tips, although there is a very small preview in the right-click context menu, courtesy XnView.

I tried re-associating .jpg files with Vista Photo Gallery, but although this produced informative filetips (in Explorer and not Powerdesk) and gave a Preview item in the right-click context menu, it didn't get me a preview in the pop-up filetips.

Please note that this issue is concerning pop-up file tips and is nothing to do with display of thumbnails.

Could some nice person tell me how to get those pop-up previews back? Many thanks,
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    Custom build by Brian Fowler Computers (Exeter, UK)
    CPU
    Intel Core 2 Duo E6750
    Motherboard
    Asus P5B-VM SE
    Memory
    2GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    Intel G965 Chipset family
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Xerox LCD
    Screen Resolution
    1280x1024
    Hard Drives
    500 GB
    Keyboard
    Microsoft Natural, Media version
    Mouse
    Microsoft optical
    Internet Speed
    Peaks at 7.9 mbps in Vista
Oh ha-ha - solved, within some few minutes of submitting this topic!

I found that Powerdesk had a 'file tips' option in the View menu, and when I turned that on I got my informative file tips with preview back again. I was evidently mistaken in imagining that I'd had that facility in Explorer too.

Incidentally I do find Powerdesk is for most purposes much superior to Explorer - even Vista's version - and it has much more extensive functionality. I do find, though, that it periodically fails to load correctly in Vista (not in my earlier XP installation) when I double-click on its desktop icon. What happens is that two copies of it start and evidently block each other from fully loading. I then have to delete one or both from memory in Task Manager. Often upon deleting one of them the other then completes loading and runs normally. I thus need to train myself to use right-click and Open instead of double-clicking, for that would presumably never cause two copies to attempt to load together like that.
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    Custom build by Brian Fowler Computers (Exeter, UK)
    CPU
    Intel Core 2 Duo E6750
    Motherboard
    Asus P5B-VM SE
    Memory
    2GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    Intel G965 Chipset family
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Xerox LCD
    Screen Resolution
    1280x1024
    Hard Drives
    500 GB
    Keyboard
    Microsoft Natural, Media version
    Mouse
    Microsoft optical
    Internet Speed
    Peaks at 7.9 mbps in Vista
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