How to get SVG thumbnails in Windows Explorer?

Question

I can open them in browser just OK, but how can I have thumbnails in the Windows Explorer?

Edit: I installed Renesis Player as suggested by this answer, but it does not work for me, probably because I have 64-bit system.

Answer 1

Use this awesome SVG thumbnail shell extension which works fine in Windows 7/8/10 (both 64-bit and 32-bit):

SVGSee - Extension module for Windows Explorer to render SVG thumbnails, so that you can have an overview of your SVG files.

It is open source and free - what more can you ask for?

On Windows 10 after installing, try changing your SVG file association (the "Open With"). By changing it, something somehow gets refreshed, and it starts working.

Answer 2

In regards to the answer given by geo, in the event someone needs to rebuild the IconCache.db and wants to give a go at not needing to reboot try the following batch.

@ECHO OFF

TASKKILL /IM explorer* /F
DEL "%localappdata%\IconCache.db" /A
explorer.exe

Answer 3

Microsoft PowerToys does that:

Answer 4

Adobe Illustrator isn't the only way to do this, nor is it the best way to do this.

See the post by @Deckard above...

Follow the link he provided to the SVG Explorer Extension. Download and install Dotz Software SVG Explorer Extension, aka DSSEE.

Once installed, open Task Manager and kill all instances of explorer.exe. From the Task Manager menu, choose File->Run new task menu. In the dialog box, simply type explorer and hit OK.

NOTE: Please do the above step only if you're comfortable with killing and restarting processes through the Task Manager. If not, then simply reboot your system so that the new explorer extension can load.

From then on, all SVG images will show up as thumbnails in Windows Explorer.

This extension has worked perfectly for me on both Win7_x64 and Win8_x64! In fact, I was recently pleasantly surprised to learn that it displays thumbnails for compressed SVGZ images as seamlessly as it does the non-compressed versions.

NOTE (2014/07/17):

Per the comment by John Rasch, if you can't see the SVG thumbnails after following the steps above, you can clear your icon cache using the following batch file:

@ECHO OFF

TASKKILL /IM explorer* /F
DEL "%LOCALAPPDATA%\IconCache.db" /A
shutdown /r /f /t 5 /d 02:04

Copy this to RebuildIconCache.bat and run it as Administrator. It will kill all Windows Explorer processes, which is required before you can delete the icon cache, then delete the icon cache, and, finally, reboot your system.

EDIT (2015/12/08):

As noted by @user1698811 below, the last line, "shutdown /r /f /t 5 /d 02:04", can simply be replaced with "explorer.exe", getting rid of the need to reboot.

EDIT (2015/03/10):

I know this question was asked about Windows 7, but I thought it would be useful to add instructions for Windows 8 and above...

Windows 8 introduced a new icon and thumbnail cache system. Instead of a single file containing the entire icon cache, Windows 8 uses multiple cache files, based on the size and type of icon. These files are stored in "%LOCALAPPDATA%\Microsoft\Windows\Explorer". As an example, that directory on my system includes the following files:

iconcache_16.db         thumbcache_16.db
iconcache_32.db         thumbcache_32.db
iconcache_48.db         thumbcache_48.db
iconcache_96.db         thumbcache_96.db
iconcache_256.db        thumbcache_256.db
iconcache_1024.db       thumbcache_1024.db
iconcache_exif.db       thumbcache_exif.db
iconcache_idx.db        thumbcache_idx.db
iconcache_sr.db         thumbcache_sr.db
iconcache_wide.db       thumbcache_wide.db

As a result, in order to clear the icon cache in Windows 8 or above, you would need to delete all of the 'iconcache_*.db' files in the above directory.

Note that, in addition to the above files, Windows 8 still retains the "%LOCALAPPDATA%\IconCache.db" file. I honestly don't know if this file is used or not, but, to be thorough, it would be best to continue to delete that file as well.

Therefore, for Windows 8 and above, we have the RebuildIconCache8.bat file as follows:

@ECHO OFF

TASKKILL /IM explorer* /F
DEL "%LOCALAPPDATA%\IconCache.db" /A
DEL "%LOCALAPPDATA%\Microsoft\Windows\Explorer\iconcache_*.db" /A
shutdown /r /f /t 5 /d 02:04

or as @user1698811 suggested:

@ECHO OFF

TASKKILL /IM explorer* /F
DEL "%LOCALAPPDATA%\IconCache.db" /A
DEL "%LOCALAPPDATA%\Microsoft\Windows\Explorer\iconcache_*.db" /A
explorer.exe

which resets the icon cache without having to reboot.

Answer 5

1. Download & install the latest svg viewer extension (32 or 64-bit)
2. Download & run the rebuild_icon_cache.bat (if you still cannot see the thumbs)
3. Reboot your system

This works on Windows 8.1 Pro 64-bit.

Answer 6

Codeplex no longer has the download for the binary there anymore. Use the github built version.

https://github.com/maphew/svg-explorer-extension

https://github.com/maphew/svg-explorer-extension/releases

After downloading and clicking through the installer, then open an admin command prompt and run:

TASKKILL /IM explorer* /F
DEL "%localappdata%\IconCache.db" /A
explorer.exe

Hope that helps.

Answer 7

There is also SVGShellExtensions, available at https://github.com/EtheaDev/SVGShellExtensions which offers Thumbnail and Preview handlers (and an SVG Text Editor).

It is built with Delphi, see article https://blogs.embarcadero.com/impressive-svg-windows-shell-extension-tools-are-made-with-delphi/ for more info

Answer 8

You could try the RENESIS Player Browser Plugins.

Regards

Answer 9

The extensions mentioned by Deckard and telemarker work on Windows 10 x64. I selected the one mentioned by telemarker. However, clearing the icon cache or rebooting may not be enough. There is another setting which must be set correctly to see .svg (and other) thumbnails.

• Open Explorer
• Click to the View section
• Click Options > Change folder and search options (far right)
• Select the View tab
• Ensure Always show icons, never thumbnails is unticked (ie. OFF)

Confusingly, Microsoft have tied this setting to another feature to show folder shortcuts with some representation of the contents of that folder, see image below.

This setting is reached via:

• Control Panel > All Control Panel Items > System
• Click Advanced system settings
• Select the Advanced tab, then Performance > Settings
• Select the Visual Effects tab
• If any of the Adjust X or Custom options are selected, Show thumbnails instead of icons needs to be ticked (ie. ON)

The setting is identical in the sense that toggle it on one place, and it is toggled in the other, but the wording is different and the ON/OFF state is inverted!

If, like me, you find this representation of folder contents ugly but still want to see your .svg thumnails, you're out of luck. There does not appear to be any way on Windows to show thumbnails for A but not B - its either all or none.

Answer 10

If you are using Windows 7 64bit, you have only one way to see thumbnails:

Open (install) Adobe Illustrator trial, then press File > Open and change to a thumbnail view of your SVG files, and it will show all your SVGs.