Disable video preview in side panel

  • Thread starter Thread starter Cameron
  • Start date Start date
C

Cameron

When I select a video file, Windows will create a little
preview of it in Explorer's side pane. Frequently,
generating this preview causes Explorer to crash, which is
never fun. I would like to disable these video previews
entirely without having to disable the side panel. I have
worked out a way to disable the previews for individual
folders, by modifying the folder.htt file, but what I
would like is a way to disable them for all folders, all
at once. If there are options related to this in WMP or
explorer, then Microsoft has done a fine job of hiding
them from me. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
 
Yeah, preview is really only useful for images.
There's no standard option to disable the media previews
and it was a pain to figure out but it can be done.

1. go to C:\WINNT\Web
2. find the hidden/system file called folder.htt
3. make a backup of this file in case you want to change
it back (call it folderold.htt or someting)
4. Open folder.htt with notepad
5. Delete the line <span id=MediaPlayerSpan>
6. Save your changes and close the file

Now media player wont pop up all the time but image
preview and the side bar will still be there!
 
There are two ways of doing this. One is more complicated and could cause a
lot of problems system wise. The other is relatively simple. But isn't a
hack. So the coolness factor isn't there.
The second way is:
Go to Tools>folder options
Then deselect anything that says *enable web content*

At this point windows will not preview any files. which sucks in that I
would like to see it normaly just not for SPECIFIC file types. MS you
listening? give us a power toy for Win2k/xp (BOTH not just XP) that will let
us enable web content for all but specified file types, and at that
associated only to a folder, so if viewed from a different folder the files
would be previewed.

About the first way: It actually is better than the simple way, look at the
other post.
For convinience sake I copied it to this post too:

Yeah, preview is really only useful for images.
There's no standard option to disable the media previews
and it was a pain to figure out but it can be done.

1. go to C:\WINNT\Web
2. find the hidden/system file called folder.htt
3. make a backup of this file in case you want to change
it back (call it folderold.htt or someting)
4. Open folder.htt with notepad
5. Delete the line <span id=MediaPlayerSpan>
6. Save your changes and close the file

Now media player wont pop up all the time but image
preview and the side bar will still be there!
 
There are two ways of doing this. One is more complicated and could cause a
lot of problems system wise. The other is relatively simple. But isn't a
hack. So the coolness factor isn't there.
The second way is:
Go to Tools>folder options
Then deselect anything that says *enable web content*

At this point windows will not preview any files. which sucks in that I
would like to see it normaly just not for SPECIFIC file types. MS you
listening? give us a power toy for Win2k/xp (BOTH not just XP) that will let
us enable web content for all but specified file types, and at that
associated only to a folder, so if viewed from a different folder the files
would be previewed.

About the first way: It actually is better than the simple way, look at the
other post.
For convinience sake I copied it to this post too.

Yeah, preview is really only useful for images.
There's no standard option to disable the media previews
and it was a pain to figure out but it can be done.

1. go to C:\WINNT\Web
2. find the hidden/system file called folder.htt
3. make a backup of this file in case you want to change
it back (call it folderold.htt or someting)
4. Open folder.htt with notepad
5. Delete the line <span id=MediaPlayerSpan>
6. Save your changes and close the file

Now media player wont pop up all the time but image
preview and the side bar will still be there!
 
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