So here is a huge discussion on the same problem from some other newsgroups.
Hope it helps you too, let us know!
Hi Aaron. I ran into this very same problem on Win XP Pro and it drove me
nuts. I tried all the normal stuff like file associations and app
reinstalls, etc and I searched the web and found very little help on the
subject just as you did. Anyway the following was the best and safest
resolution available that I could find. Your situation may be different, but
here's how I fixed my thumbnails for both .MPEG and .MPG (same file formats,
with two common extension variations).
First, here are all the details in a step-by-step format. If you want to
skip all this and you feel comfortable applying registry updates directly,
then at the very bottom of this posting, I show you how to create a custom
..REG file that will do this in one step.
DETAILS:
1. Go here and read this post
http://www.tech-pro.net/howto_011.html.
NOTE: This was written for Win98/Me and is from the perspective of graphics
files so I almost ignored this info, but by understanding the structure of
the registry first, I was able to solve my video file thumbnails in the same
way. *** Don't download and merge the "thumbnail.reg" file that is posted
here. It doesn't have the keys you need for video files.
2. Go here and search the page to find "restore thumbnail view" (line 17)
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_tweaks.htm. I right-clicked on the link
"Restore Thumbnail Views in XP" and saved the "xp_thumbnail.exe" to my HD and
ran it locally. This handy tool updates the registry so I would recommend
checking your registry values first to see if you have this same structure
already. Couple interesting notes here: First, the .MPG extension was not
even available for me but .MPEG was. I unchecked everything except the .MPEG
and clicked Apply to just do the minimum for a single file extension.
3. Run Regedit and navigate down to the HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT folder scroll down
to find your .AVI, .MPEG and .MPG Keys or whichever ones aren't generating
thumbnails for you. In step 2 above, xp_thumbnail.exe corrected the ShellEx
folder for the .MPEG key with the following structure:
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.mpeg\shellex\{BB2E617C-0920-11d1-9A0B-00C04FC2D6C1}
The (Default) value for this key is {c5a40261-cd64-4ccf-84cb-c394da41d590}
4. For me, this was just as shown for .MPEG but not the same for .MPG, so
all I did was expand the .mpg key, expand the shellex key and add a new key
under shellex. Then rename this new key to
"{BB2E617C-0920-11d1-9A0B-00C04FC2D6C1}". Then click on this renamed key and
dbl-click the (Default) value. Set the value to
"{c5a40261-cd64-4ccf-84cb-c394da41d590}". Viola!! My .mpeg and .mpg video
files now show thumbnails again in Windows Explorer when Thumbnail mode is
selected.
** I repeated step 4 for my .AVI and .WMV keys as well to fix them in the
same way.
** One other note: Not sure if this key/value combo is specific to a
particular application. I haven't played with this yet and don't plan to
since it's working again. For me, I had previously downloaded the latest
Quicktime Player (ver 7.1.3) and had setup QuickTime as the default viewer
for all my MPEG file types.
QUICK-FIX VERSION
Be careful before using this. Recommend you read the above and understand
what's going on before doing this.
1. Create a new .txt file in Notepad and save it to your HD. Name it
something like "Update_Thumbnail_ShellEx.txt".
2. Copy the following text into this txt file. Note: Each key is exactly
the same except for the name of the key right after the _ROOT\ part. Notice
here that I have a key for ".avi", ".mpg", ".mpeg", and ".wmv". You can add
others or not use any for file types that aren't giving you trouble
displaying thumbnails. Make sure you copy the first line "Windows Registry
Editor Version 5.00" too. This may be different for your environment.
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.avi\ShellEx\{BB2E617C-0920-11d1-9A0B-00C04FC2D6C1}]
@="{c5a40261-cd64-4ccf-84cb-c394da41d590}"
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.mpg\shellex\{BB2E617C-0920-11d1-9A0B-00C04FC2D6C1}]
@="{c5a40261-cd64-4ccf-84cb-c394da41d590}"
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.mpeg\shellex\{BB2E617C-0920-11d1-9A0B-00C04FC2D6C1}]
@="{c5a40261-cd64-4ccf-84cb-c394da41d590}"
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.wmv\shellex\{BB2E617C-0920-11d1-9A0B-00C04FC2D6C1}]
@="{c5a40261-cd64-4ccf-84cb-c394da41d590}"
3. Save this file and rename it from .txt to .reg and dbl-click on it. This
should merge all these updates to the registry. This is all I had to do to
make thumbnails all work again for all of these video file types.
Hope that helps you and others
- WebGuy
http://shellrevealed.com/forums/thread/5351.aspx
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