18th September 2002
Question: I used to be able to view HTML files in a thumbnail view in Windows XP, but ever since I installed Service Pack 1 I can no longer view these files in thumbnail view. Is there a way to fix this?
Answer: I wish I could say that there is a fix for this, but Microsoft turned off this feature for stability and performance reasons. Microsoft didn't just take away the functionality to view HTML files in thumbnail view, but you actually can't even view most Web content files in thumbnail view anymore. The following file types have been disabled from thumbnail view: HTML documents (.htm and .html files), XML documents (.xml files), Internet e-mail messages (.eml files), and Internet news messages (.nws files). As I said, Microsoft disabled this feature by the design of Service Pack 1. Because of that, there is no quick way to turn it off so far (aside from uninstalling Service Pack 1). Don't worry, though; we'll inform you if we find a workaround.