Thumbnail preview of PDFs not displayed in Windows Explorer - Fix

Report · Feb 17, 2021

Thumbnail preview of PDFs not displayed in Windows Explorer - Fix

After the Feb 9, 2021 release of Acrobat & Reader DC version 2021.001.20135, Thumbnail preview of PDFs were not displaying/generating in the Windows Explorer.

The thumbnail preview of PDFs was not displaying/generating correctly in the Windows Explorer even though the Enable PDF thumbnail previews in Windows Explorer option was selected in Edit > Preferences > General.

Workaround:

Note: This is a temporary workaround, Adobe is working to fix this issue asap.

Quit Acrobat Reader DC if it's already running.
Open the Registry Editor: Go to Run (Windows menu + R), type regedit.exe in the Open field, and then click OK.
In the Registry Editor, create the following key:

Path: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Adobe\Acrobat Reader\DC\AdobeViewer

Key: EULA

Type: REG_DWORD

Value: 1

Close the Registry Editor.
Open the Task Manager in Windows by doing one of the following:
1. Right-click on the taskbar at the bottom of the screen and choose Task Manager.
2. Press Ctrl + Alt + Delete keys on your keyboard and then choose Task Manager.

In the Task Manager window, choose the Windows Explorer process, and then click Restart.

7. Close the Task Manager.

8. Open Windows Explorer and check the thumbnail previews of PDFs.