Tips to Fix PDF Thumbnail Problems in Windows 7 and Windows 8 PCs

Do you use PDF files too often and now you are not able to see a proper thumbnail of the file? Do you have a clue about what to do when your Adobe reader fails to show you the exact details of the file on its thumbnail? If no, then it’s possible that you might not have an idea about the issues that your Adobe Acrobat reader is facing. It is one of the most common issues that a user might come across even when using a properly installed Adobe reader on their devices. Installing this amazing software on your Windows 7 or Windows 8 is only possible when you have a device whose operating system (OS) runs on a 64-bit OS architecture.

Once you’ve installed the Adobe Acrobat Reader, you will be able to see the software icon on your desktop or in Explorer. On successful installation, users can easily see a thumbnail preview image of the first page of each PDF document, whenever a PDF file is created, downloaded or transferred on the device. The problem arises when you get nothing but a confusing icon in place of the image of the first page in a thumbnail. You might have searched Google and spotted a bunch of tricks, fixes, and paid software that claims to fix this issue, but actually it’s just a waste of time.

In this article, you’ll read about how to fix PDF thumbnail problems in Windows 7 and Windows 8 PCs.

What causes missing thumbnails in Adobe reader?

PDF formats are often created to make the content look more beautiful and organized than that of a Word documents. However, PDF templates are more difficult to access and edit, if you don’t have the Adobe software installed at your PC. Searching the solution for missing or disabled thumbnails over the web may bring you millions of search results however, not a single link will help you in resolving the issue. After researching for so long, tech experts came to a conclusion that there are actually 2 issues that lead to this issue:

1. Indexing the contents of PDF files so that they are searchable by Windows Search
2. Displaying the first-page thumbnail preview on all PDF files

How to fix these issues?

To resolve the indexing issues

Users can always use the classic option of installing the Adobe PDF iFilter 9 for all the operating systems running on 64-bit architecture platforms. Users who are using Windows 7 x64 will find it necessary to make their software able to search the contents of PDF files. But Windows 8 users will not experience any difference in either the indexing or the thumbnail problem.

It is recommended to install or upgrade to the recently released Acrobat Reader XI to resolve all the indexing problems in one go. Once you’ve successfully installed the latest Acrobat Reader, you’ll see that all the contents of the PDF files will now be indexed, and searchable.

To resolve the thumbnail previews issues

It might be a possibility that the thumbnails preview problem will not be resolved even after upgrading to Reader XI, hence, you will need to find another way to fix it. Various researches and product studies demonstrate that Adobe simply doesn’t care about PDF thumbnails on 64-bit devices and even installing Acrobat X Pro didn’t give proper PDF thumbnails.

If upgrading the version of the software doesn’t help you resolve issues with your PDF files, then you should download and run the Adobe Reader x64 Fixes v3. This fix is a small program that needs to be installed on your device and as soon as you will run it, the program will get the things done. The fix is actually designed and developed to resolve both Preview Pane viewing of PDFs, and thumbnail generation.

Conclusion

It is always recommended to install the latest versions of software and programs to ensure that the device and the applications remain free from the threats. Additionally, users should keep a check on the latest updates, security patches, and fixes released by the vendors to ensure that the programs remain in-line with technological trends. Users might not be aware that Windows 8 comes with a built-in PDF viewer but it is very basic and is apparently not capable of generating PDF thumbnails. So, in order to fix these issues related to indexing and thumbnail generation, either you will be required to install the latest Acrobat Reader XI or you can take the help of above mentioned fix. Choose the option that suits you the best and explore more PDF files with ease.

About the Author: Brooke M. Perry is an ardent technician associated with Qresolve remote computer support with wide experience of fixing issues with PCs, laptops, tablets and smartphones. With a strong track record of devising effective ways of internet security and system security, she has so far helped thousands of users across the globe.

Brooke M. Perry is an ardent technician associated with Qresolve computer security, with wide experience of fixing issues with PCs, laptops, tablets and smartphones.