When you turn on the preview pane feature, every time you open Windows File Explorer and select any file, you will see a small preview thumbnail of that file on the right pane of the screen.
Thanks to this new feature, you can see a small preview of the file in the form of a thumbnail on the right pane of Windows Explorer. This feature is very useful in identifying files faster, but it is also the main cause of many Windows File Explorer-related issues.
In this post, we have discussed how to disable the preview pane in Windows 10 for those users who are affected by the preview pane error.
The Windows 10 preview pane feature displays thumbnails of locally stored files using cached files stored in the installation directory. When a new file is opened, a cache folder is created for the same file, which is then used by Windows File Explorer to preview its contents as thumbnails.
This feature sounds very useful, but it has been reported several times that it causes an error when opening a file. This error is more common in Word and Excel files. While the preview pane is great, it's not worth getting in the way of your work. In addition, removing the preview pane can make Windows File Explorer work faster.
Below we have mentioned some different methods that you can use to remove the preview pane in Windows 10.
Use shortcuts to hide the preview pane
The easiest way to hide the Preview Pane is to use the Alt+P shortcut. To use this shortcut first, press the Windows + E keys to open Windows File Explorer. Next, press the Alt+P keys to hide the Preview Pane. Using this shortcut again will enable the Preview Pane feature.
Hide the preview pane from the View tab
You can also enable or disable the Preview Pane from the View tab of the ribbon menu. To do this, follow these steps:
1. Open Windows File Explorer again.
2. Click the View tab on the ribbon menu.
3. There you can find the "Preview Pane" option.
4. You can turn it on or off by clicking on it.
Disable thumbnails in the preview pane
You can change the settings of Windows File Explorer to hide the thumbnails in the preview pane. To do this, follow these steps:
1. Open Windows File Explorer again.
2. Select the View tab from the ribbon menu.
3. Next, click on the "Options" button, which will open the folder option on your screen.
4. Select the "View" tab, and in the "Advanced Settings" section, check the box that says "Always show icons, never show thumbnails". Also, uncheck the "Show file icon on thumbnail" option.
5. Finally, click "Apply" and "OK" to save the changes.
Now you know how to disable the preview pane in Windows 10. Follow the above steps carefully and you won't face any issues when removing the preview pane feature from File Explorer.