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Some users in our office use the preview pane in the windows explorer to view PDF's. After a while (~an hour) the preview pane no longer shows the preview.

  • On one PC, it says "No preview available" (even though there should be)
  • On another PC, the preview pane simply just stays blank.

All PCs have Adobe Reader XI, and one has Adobe Acrobat XI as well.

Does anyone know what might be causing this issue? Currently, the users have to "hot seat" to continue their work.

NOTE - these files all do have previews, as when the users switch PCs, they are able to see the previews that were previously "unavailable" on the first PC.

EDIT: After some investigation, the PC's don't seem to be running hot, the memory isn't running exceptionally high, and the memory seems to be sitting comfortably at ~50%. They are using additional programs at the same time, but that doesn't seem to affect this. (It still runs slowly with out any other programs running)

EDIT 2: File size does not seem to affect the process in any way. A 500 KB file might take 2 minutes to load, whereas a 5 MB file might only take 30 seconds. I also found that during this process, there is 4 instances of Adobe Reader running, anywhere between 4,000 and 300,000 MB of memory. When I stop these processes, if I have a file I am attempting to view, it just automatically restarts the processes, but if I have already loaded a preview, the processes end, but the preview disappears.

UPDATE: After a little digging and research, I have discovered this may be being caused by a buildup in temporary memory, so I have created a dll that (should) empty the unused RAM. -- No change.

EDIT 3: Users do multiple things on the PC, like using MicroStation and Photoshop. For most of the process it will sit ~1 GB memory, then unexpectedly spike. Resetting the PC will unload the memory partially, making it crash sooner (~45 mins).

The PC usually sits idle overnight (hibernation) but on the weekend it gets shutdown.

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18
  • What happens if you restart explorer?
    – DavidPostill ♦
    Feb 25, 2015 at 9:18
  • No change. I got lucky once just by hitting F5 (Refresh), but that only worked once. It usually takes a while for the system to "recover". I also checked the temperature of the machines but they weren't hot at all. They also run in an air conditioned office
    – Ben
    Feb 25, 2015 at 9:21
  • I would be very surpsised if this was temperature related ;)
    – DavidPostill ♦
    Feb 25, 2015 at 12:22
  • Is Acrobat/Reader running when you encounter these effects?
    – Max Wyss
    Feb 25, 2015 at 14:10
  • Did you try to reset the .pdf file extension/application association? Possibly it was modified by another application.
    – user3169
    Feb 25, 2015 at 23:46

4 Answers 4

Reset to default
4
+50

This issue occurs because you must open another instance of the program to preview the document.

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Modules\GlobalSettings\DetailsContainer]
"DetailsContainer"=hex:02,00,00,00,01,00,00,00

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Modules\GlobalSettings\Sizer]
"DetailsContainerSizer"=hex:24,01,00,00,01,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,2b,03,00,00

Then do the following for both keys:

  • Right click the key
  • Select Permissions
  • Select your name
  • Check Deny

References

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  • Does not work for me unfortunately. I only get a file preview for bitmap images in the preview pane of Windows Explorer. Previewing does not work for all documents like Word, PDF, Text etc.. Thumbnails however are created and displayed correctly for all documents in Windows Explorer.
    – David.P
    May 27, 2022 at 7:40
1

I found that this fixed the "No Preview Available." problem for me with Windows 7 Pro x64:

  1. Open Acrobat Pro X
  2. Go to Edit > Preferences > General
  3. At the bottom of page Select Default PDF Handler. I chose Adobe Pro X and click apply.

Source: http://answers.microsoft.com

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1

When the preview suddenly stops working (but has worked in the past)... Use Ctrl-Alt-Delete to start the Task Manager. Click on the Processes tab. End the "AcroRd32" processes (close Acrobat processes). Click on a new pdf in Windows explorer and it should now show up in the preview.

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0

I had this problem while using AVG PC Tuneup. AVG would put the app to "sleep" which would prevent it from showing the prview of the PDF file in the preview pane.

  1. Open AVG PC Tuneup and "wake" Adobe Acrobat Reader.
  2. Open Task Manager and kill acroread32 and any Adobe Acrobat Reader processes

Should work now.

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1
  • 1
    Not really. My answer addresses this problem specifically for users of AVG PC Tuneup. Simply killing acoread32 won't fix the problem. AVG PC Tuneup will de-prioritize a process in order to speed up your PC. "Waking" the process (if this is your issue) will likely fix the preview pane issue. Killing acroread32 was for good measure. That process will start again next time you try to preview a PDF.
    – Mike Reaves
    Jul 17, 2020 at 20:41

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