Windows Wrinkles Ironed out. 

Wrinkle No 1: The Case of the Missing Picture Thumbnails

In my 20 years of consulting, I have only recently encountered the phenomenon of picture thumbnails disappearing after a Windows Update, although a little research showed that the problem is more common than my experience says. 

After performing an upgrade to Windows 11 on two different computers at the same time in the same house, the picture thumbnails were not present in any folder in the Pictures folder.  The picture files were displayed as icons, as shown below.  The ways I knew how to toggle thumbnails on and off did not work.  I knew it was a system setting somewhere, but the clients were on a tight schedule.  So I did my own research later that evening.  Indeed, the case of the disappearing thumbnails preceeded Windows 11, although I had never encountered it before this particular Windows 11 upgrade down that one day.  I had performed a Windows 11 upgrade the day before and the day after, and the problem did not happen on either of those two days.

Icons Only. No Thumbnails



To turn the icons into thumbnails, first click THIS PC → System Properties



From System Properties, click ADVANCED SYSTEM PROPERTIES

 

Click the Performance Tab → Settings



The settings tab displays many different settings.  One button references Show Icons



If the Show Thumbnails is checked, click thebutton off.  Reboot the computer and then repeat the process to turn thumbnails back on.

Gerald Reiff