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Explorer Not Displaying Thumbnails
Explorer Not Displaying Thumbnails
- Hey everyone!
I've got a Server 2008 R2 domain controller and Windows Vista and Windows 7 clients which are exhibiting some strange symptoms with regards to the default thumbnail display behavior. More specifically, a brand new system not on the domain will display thumbnails for files just fine. Immediately after joining the system to the domain, Windows will display icons only.
This is because it enables the "Always show icons, never thumbnails" option in the Folder Options after joining the domain.
Now this should not be happening because I have specifically set the active GP so that it won't do that (and yes, group policy otherwise works perfectly for everything else).
Specifically the option I have set in GP is this one . I have set that to "Disabled". Despite this, new systems added to the domain automatically get the option in the Folder Options checked when I don't want it to be. I can uncheck the option manually just fine and everything works, but it always reverts every time systems are rebooted. What is it that I'm missing here? I just don't get why brand new systems and existing systems outright refuse to keep displaying thumbnails as I expect.
Cheers,
Corey
EDIT: I should also mention that I have also set the following options with regards to thumbnails, all under the [ User Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Windows Explorer ] path:
DISABLED: Turn off the display of thumbnails and only display icons.
DISABLED: Turn off the display of thumbnails and only display icons on network folders
DISABLED: Turn off the caching of thumbnails in hidden thumbs.db files
Answers
- Since the GPO setting I referenced enables icons and not thumbnails, perhaps it should be disabled in the GPO (based on your upload it is currently enabled). Depending on how that GPO preference is configured, it might be taking effect on each policy refresh. I would suggest removing the GPO preference setting referenced and testing the behavior.Guy
- Marked As Answer byCoreM Friday, November 06, 2009 1:34 AM
All Replies
- Bump?
Surely somebody must know something about this... - Hi,
Please collect the following file for research, on DC, open GPMC, right-click Group Policy Result, choose Group Policy Result Wizard, follow the wizard to collect a report of the problematic system. When it finish, right-click in the right-panel, choose Save Report, and use Windows Live SkyDrive (http://www.skydrive.live.com/) to upload the file and then give us the download address.
Thanks.
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights. - Thanks for the reply Mervyn!
I've managed to run the Group Policy Result Wizard using the DC on a random system on the network (named Kentsfield in this case). Took me a couple of minutes to figure out that I needed to enable remote admin mode in the firewall on the remote system, but anyways.
The result of the wizard are located here . You'll notice that I've also been having problems with IE zonemapping, but lets leave that for another day!
Cheers,
Corey - Corey,A review of your output shows the following preference setting at the bottom of the file:
Is this the opposite of the behavior you're looking for?Always show icons, never thumbnails Enabled Guy - Yes, it is the opposite of what I want (I'm looking to have thumbnails shown all the time).
As noted in my initial post, that box gets checked in the Folder Options automatically on all domain computers after system restarts (and possibly on user logon, not sure exactly). I can and have been unchecking that box on systems only to find the option constantly re-enabling itself despite the group policy configuration...
Cheers,
Corey - Since the GPO setting I referenced enables icons and not thumbnails, perhaps it should be disabled in the GPO (based on your upload it is currently enabled). Depending on how that GPO preference is configured, it might be taking effect on each policy refresh. I would suggest removing the GPO preference setting referenced and testing the behavior.Guy
- Marked As Answer byCoreM Friday, November 06, 2009 1:34 AM
- Hello again, thanks for the help! The stumbling block for me was simply that I didn't realize that the folder options could be explicitly configured through GP. It was kind of dumb of me to always be looking at the Policies rather than under the "Control Panel Settings"!
Cheers,
Corey
