File preview for all files except images suddenly broken

[David.P]

Hello Forum,

for decades, I have been struggling like Don Quixote with the file preview feature in Windows. Time and again, I have to start all over, totally at a loss, since it keeps breaking without warning.

Since a few days I suddenly get file previews only for image files in Windows Explorer, and likewise in Everything. For all documents, such as Office, Text or PDF, no file preview is displayed anymore, neither any error message.

I know it's not Everything's fault, of course, but maybe someone on the forum has a tip on how best to fix it

Thanks heaps
David

[void]

Debug logs might contain some useful information:

• In Everything, type in the following search and press ENTER:
  /debug
  ---this will show a debug console---
• Select a txt file.
• Hide the preview pane (Alt + P)
• Re-show the preview pane (Alt + P)
• Right click the debug console window caption and under the Edit menu, click Select All.
• Right click the selected text in the console to copy it to the clipboard.
• Could you please reply with the copied text?

To close the debug console:

• In Everything, type in the following search and press ENTER:
  /debug

Please make sure Everything is installed correctly and running as a standard user:

• In Everything, from the Tools menu, click Options.
• Click the General tab on the left.
• Check Store settings and data in %APPDATA%\Everything.
• Uncheck Run as administrator.
• Check Everything Service. (Please make sure this is tick-checked and not square-checked)
• Click OK.
• Exit Everything (right click the Everything tray icon and click Exit).
• Restart Everything.

Please make sure there's no other programs running as administrator and showing previews.



Please try killing any preview host processes (prevhost.exe)

[David.P]

Thank you void for your quick reply.

I did as you said and below is the content of the Debug Console. I did the process once for a text file, and once more for a PDF file.

I have attached the contents of the console window as ZIP because it is too large for a forum post.

Below are my Everything settings that have been unchanged for quite some time:


Kind regards
David

[void]

Thank you for the debug log.

CoCreateInstance 80040154

This is error REGDB_E_CLASSNOTREG
Class not registered



This most likely means your registry is corrupt and your IPreviewHandler dlls are no longer registered.

[horst.epp]

Windows has no integrated PDF preview handler.
So what software do you have installed to get a PDF preview ?
Also you should at least provide your Everything and OS version.

The following cmd script shows what preview handlers are installed.
Store it as filename.cmd and run it once.

Code: Select all

@Echo off
Echo/>>%0
Echo ============================================ >>%0
Echo Computername: %ComputerName% Date: %Date% %Time:~0,6% >>%0
reg query "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\PreviewHandlers" >>%0
More +9 <%0
Pause
goto :EOF

It will show the list and also add it to the end of the cmd as list.
Show us the resulting cmd.

The final list looks like this:

Code: Select all

Computername: HOME-PC Date: 08.05.2023 13:02: 

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\PreviewHandlers
    {13D3C4B8-B179-4ebb-BF62-F704173E7448}    REG_SZ    Windows Contact Preview Handler
    {1531d583-8375-4d3f-b5fb-d23bbd169f22}    REG_SZ    Windows TXT Previewer
    {53BEDF0B-4E5B-4183-8DC9-B844344FA104}    REG_SZ    Microsoft Windows MAPI Preview Handler
    {8a7cae0e-5951-49cb-bf20-ab3fa1e44b01}    REG_SZ    Windows Font previewer
    {92dbad9f-5025-49b0-9078-2d78f935e341}    REG_SZ    Microsoft Windows Mail Mime Preview Handler
    {a42c2ccb-67d3-46fa-abe6-7d2f3488c7a3}    REG_SZ    Windows RTF Previewer
    {b9815375-5d7f-4ce2-9245-c9d4da436930}    REG_SZ    Microsoft Windows Mail Mime Preview Handler
    {BFD468D2-D0A0-4bdc-878C-E69C2F5B435D}    REG_SZ    Microsoft Windows Mail Html Preview Handler
    {E64164EB-1AE0-4C50-BAEF-A413C2B3A4BC}    REG_SZ    Microsoft 3MF Shell Thumbnail and Preview Handler
    {f8b8412b-dea3-4130-b36c-5e8be73106ac}    REG_SZ    Microsoft Windows Mail Html Preview Handler
    {031EE060-67BC-460d-8847-E4A7C5E45A27}    REG_SZ    Windows Media Player Rich Preview Handler
    {AD8855FB-F908-4DDF-982C-ADB9DE5FF000}    REG_SZ    Delphi Preview Handler
    {37742665-fa1f-4da6-9c29-59fdfba13fd7}    REG_SZ    BrandsICT Msg Preview Handler
    {3A84F9C2-6164-485C-A7D9-4B27F8AC009E}    REG_SZ    Microsoft PDF Previewer
    {32a6a30d-c68e-4f7a-aa4c-2fa9011b0717}    REG_SZ    Foxit PDF Preview Handler
    {9B68BDF7-95F9-4A1F-851C-27D822F8E3E9}    REG_SZ    PDF-XChange Preview Handler

[void]

You can use regsvr32.exe to re-register IPreviewHandler DLLs.

You'll need to know the filename of the IPreviewHandler DLL.
You can use the above list in horst.epp's post to get the IPreviewHandler-CLSIDs for all the installed Preview Handlers.
For each IPreviewHandler-CLSID, you can check the DLL under:
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\<IPreviewHandler-CLSID>\InProcServer32
(this information could be missing in your case)



Please try re-registering the shell32.dll for the text preview handler:
From an command prompt running as administrator, run:

Code: Select all

regsvr32 /i shell32.dll

Are you able to preview text files now?

[David.P]

O.k. thanks guys.

Here is the result from filename.cmd:

Code: Select all

Computername: BUERO-PC-XYZ Date: 08.05.2023 13:22:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\PreviewHandlers
    {13D3C4B8-B179-4ebb-BF62-F704173E7448}    REG_SZ    Windows Contact Preview Handler
    {1531d583-8375-4d3f-b5fb-d23bbd169f22}    REG_SZ    Windows TXT Previewer
    {53BEDF0B-4E5B-4183-8DC9-B844344FA104}    REG_SZ    Microsoft Windows MAPI Preview Handler
    {8a7cae0e-5951-49cb-bf20-ab3fa1e44b01}    REG_SZ    Windows Font previewer
    {92dbad9f-5025-49b0-9078-2d78f935e341}    REG_SZ    Microsoft Windows Mail Mime Preview Handler
    {a42c2ccb-67d3-46fa-abe6-7d2f3488c7a3}    REG_SZ    Windows RTF Previewer
    {b9815375-5d7f-4ce2-9245-c9d4da436930}    REG_SZ    Microsoft Windows Mail Mime Preview Handler
    {BFD468D2-D0A0-4bdc-878C-E69C2F5B435D}    REG_SZ    Microsoft Windows Mail Html Preview Handler
    {E64164EB-1AE0-4C50-BAEF-A413C2B3A4BC}    REG_SZ    Microsoft 3MF Shell Thumbnail and Preview Handler
    {f8b8412b-dea3-4130-b36c-5e8be73106ac}    REG_SZ    Microsoft Windows Mail Html Preview Handler
    {031EE060-67BC-460d-8847-E4A7C5E45A27}    REG_SZ    Windows Media Player Rich Preview Handler
    {85862EDA-F507-4d5b-ACA9-BB2C34A85682}    REG_SZ    Microsoft XPS Rich Preview Handler
    {8B0FA615-584F-40DC-85C7-78901AC6B80A}    REG_SZ    Xara.XarFileViewer
    {3A84F9C2-6164-485C-A7D9-4B27F8AC009E}    REG_SZ    Microsoft PDF Previewer
    {37742665-fa1f-4da6-9c29-59fdfba13fd7}    REG_SZ    BrandsICT Msg Preview Handler
    {FFBD7029-84D7-4E1E-BE44-B6619BC545ED}    REG_SZ    Foxit PDF Preview Handler
    {1B96FAD8-1C10-416E-8027-6EFF94045F6F}    REG_SZ    Foxit PDF Preview Provider (XP)
    {DC6EFB56-9CFA-464D-8880-44885D7DC193}    REG_SZ    Adobe PDF Preview Handler for Vista
    {84F66100-FF7C-4fb4-B0C0-02CD7FB668FE}    REG_SZ    Microsoft Word previewer
    {65235197-874B-4A07-BDC5-E65EA825B718}    REG_SZ    Microsoft PowerPoint previewer
    {9B68BDF7-95F9-4A1F-851C-27D822F8E3E9}    REG_SZ    PDF-XChange Preview Handler
    {00020827-0000-0000-C000-000000000046}    REG_SZ    Microsoft Excel previewer
    {21E17C2F-AD3A-4b89-841F-09CFE02D16B7}    REG_SZ    Microsoft Visio previewer

Furthermore, file preview in Dopus still works without problems. The following preview handlers are available/activated there:



I am on Windows 10, the PDF file preview is taken care of by PDF-XChange Editor, and the version of Everything is 1.5.0.1344a (x64).

[David.P]

regsvr32 /i shell32.dll

was executed successfully, however, still no file preview in Explorer or Everything.

Yesterday I had installed the Delphi File Previewer, and then removed it again. I'm not sure if the problem occurred only since then, or had been there before.

[horst.epp]

It looks like you have installed PDF-XChange.
There is a tool XCShInfoSetup.exe.
For me under C:\Program Files\Tracker Software\Shell Extensions\
Start it and enable all of its options (I have another iFilter handler).
This should help.

Screenshot - 08.05.2023 , 15_37_48.png (21.97 KiB) Viewed 15230 times

[David.P]

Yes I know that tool, but for me all document file formats don't work anymore for previewing.

[horst.epp]

Have you set "Show preview handlers in preview pane" under Folder options ?

Screenshot - 08.05.2023 , 17_52_03.png (21.23 KiB) Viewed 15218 times

[NotNull]

I suspect there is some dead wood left behind in the registry that sends your system to a no longer existing preview handlers.

Probably in the User part of the registry.
Quickest test: creatre a new regular Windows useraccount (not an admin), log in with that user and see if previews are OK.

If not:
I think I wrote a script once that analyzes preview handlers. See if I can find it somewhere (or write it again; that is probably faster)

[hamid56]

David.P in completing guidance of other please try using this nice software by ramesh "previewconfig"
https://www.winhelponline.com/blog/prev ... ows-vista/
or direct link
https://www.winhelponline.com/utils/previewconfig.zip

[NotNull]

BE aware that Prevviewconfig only checks the LocalMachine registry entries; it is not aware of CurrentUser settings, telling only half of the story ...

[horst.epp]

This util is the best for managing preview handlers.

PreviewHandlerEditor-x64.zip

(90.18 KiB) Downloaded 380 times

[David.P]

Have you set "Show preview handlers in preview pane" under Folder options ?

Yes. The other two tools I have also had on disk here for decades. Particularly, "PreviewHandlerEditor-x64" shows no irregularities. All preview handlers seem to be present and assigned to the appropriate file formats.

[NotNull]

Forgotten to mention:

previewing images is handled by Everything itself, not "outsourced" to Windows.
That is why images still show a preview in Everythingf (assuming Explorer does not show preview for images).

[David.P]

Explorer also still shows images previews.

[horst.epp]

Explorer also still shows images previews.

Normal Image preview doesn't need an external preview handler in Windows.

[void]

Try firing up Dependency Walker, load an IPreviewHandler dll and see if there's any dll dependencies that fail to load.


Check permissions, see if Windows Explorer/Everything has read/execute access to these dlls and dependencies.


Check the bitness of the dlls is correct.

[David.P]

Sorry for the late reply. I have now opened shdocvw.dll with Dependency Walker. I believe shdocvw.dll is responsible for the preview of TXT files.

I get hundreds of error messages in Dependency Walker:


Have I done this correctly so far, and how should I proceed from here?

[NotNull]

Quickest test: creatre a new regular Windows useraccount (not an admin), log in with that user and see if previews are OK.

If not:
I think I wrote a script once that analyzes preview handlers. See if I can find it somewhere (or write it again; that is probably faster)

[NotNull]

Here is the script. Darg a txt file and drop it on the script.
Post output here.

[David.P]

Thanks! Here's the output for TXT:

Code: Select all

EXT=.txt
====================================
        HKLM
====================================
==== Extension
CLSID = {1531d583-8375-4d3f-b5fb-d23bbd169f22}

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{1531d583-8375-4d3f-b5fb-d23bbd169f22}
    (Standard)    REG_SZ    Windows TXT Previewer
    AppID    REG_SZ    {6d2b5079-2f0b-48dd-ab7f-97cec514d30b}
    DisplayName    REG_SZ    @shell32.dll,-38242
    Icon    REG_SZ    notepad.exe,2

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{1531d583-8375-4d3f-b5fb-d23bbd169f22}\InProcServer32
    (Standard)    REG_EXPAND_SZ    %SystemRoot%\system32\shell32.dll
    ThreadingModel    REG_SZ    Apartment

==== ASSOCIATION
ASSOC = txtfile
CLSID = {1531d583-8375-4d3f-b5fb-d23bbd169f22}

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{1531d583-8375-4d3f-b5fb-d23bbd169f22}
    (Standard)    REG_SZ    Windows TXT Previewer
    AppID    REG_SZ    {6d2b5079-2f0b-48dd-ab7f-97cec514d30b}
    DisplayName    REG_SZ    @shell32.dll,-38242
    Icon    REG_SZ    notepad.exe,2

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{1531d583-8375-4d3f-b5fb-d23bbd169f22}\InProcServer32
    (Standard)    REG_EXPAND_SZ    %SystemRoot%\system32\shell32.dll
    ThreadingModel    REG_SZ    Apartment

====================================
        HKCU
====================================
==== Extension
CLSID =
==== ASSOCIATION
ASSOC =
CLSID =

[NotNull]

Registry settings look OK; problem must be somewhere else.
(no need to create new testuser account)

Did you already run

SFC.exe /scannow

( SFC = System File Check )

[David.P]

Yes and it said there were repairs and that I must reboot. Getting a Windows Update currently anyway.

I'll report back when I boot the PC again tomorrow.

[David.P]

So unfortunately I still don't get previews of TXT, PDF, XLS(X) and others in Windows Explorer and Everything. DOC(X) preview has started to work again.

In Dopus all files are still being previewed without problems.

Is there anything I can do, starting with the Dependency Walker result above, to troubleshoot this?