Show PDF thumbnails

Enabling thumbnail views in Windows Explorer

When I open my download folder to browse,  I cannot see the thumbnails in the folder

Actually, this isn’t an issue If you use the Autorun interface, as it let’s you view the files anyway, however for anything else you might want to view thumbnails before printing, it’s a setting thing in Adobe that is switched off by default. Remember this thumbnail view is only available in tiles folder format, details and list form doesn’t support it.

Preview of PDFs in Windows Explorer 

excerpt from : https://helpx.adobe.com/uk/acrobat/using/enable-pdf-thumbnail-preview-windows-explorer.html

In Adobe

The PDF Shell component in Acrobat DC and Acrobat Reader DC allows you to see the thumbnails of PDF documents in Windows explorer, on both 64-bit and 32-bit versions of Windows. By default, this feature is OFF. You can enable it using a specific setting available in the preferences.

Note:

For Acrobat XI and Reader XI, the thumbnails of PDFs are automatically shown in Windows Explorer on Windows 32-bit systems. However, the same is not supported on Windows 64-bit systems.

Steps

1. Open Acrobat DC or Acrobat Reader DC. On the Edit menu, choose Preferences.

2. In the Preferences dialog box, choose General in the Categories list, and then select the Enable PDF thumbnail previews in Windows Explorer check box.

Note:

If you don't see the Enable PDF thumbnail previews in Windows Explorer checkbox, update your Acrobat DC or Acrobat Reader DC to the latest version. To automatically update from the product, choose Help > Check for updates and then follow the steps in the Updater window to download and install the latest updates. 

1. Click OK.

2. Wait for a few seconds while Acrobat DC is configured to show thumbnail previews in Windows Explorer. 

Note:

In Acrobat Reader DC, you see a prompt asking for the feature to be added to the current installation. Click Yes to confirm.

In Windows Explorer

1. Open files in explorer

2. Click on the ‘view’ tab

3. Select any of the ‘icons settings’

Adobe now previews in explorer in Windows 10,11