Thumbnail Displayed in Explorer

MikeA01730 · Post by **MikeA01730** » Sat Jul 19, 2025 7:34 pm

Hi,

I just installed PDF-XChange Printer Lite Free for testing on my Win 10 PC and it works fine. There's just one problem: the thumbnail preview displayed in the explorer for the generated PDFs are missing. I just see the generic icon for a PDF, instead of a thumbnail of the first page. I've been installing and uninstalling several products, so just to be sure I uninstalled and reinstalled to no avail.

Is there something I can do so the explorer displays the thumbnails?

Thanks,
Mike

lev · Post by **lev** » Sun Jul 20, 2025 5:03 pm

This https://www.pdf-xchange.com/knowledgeba ... extensions may help

Mon Jul 21, 2025 9:42 am

Hello, MikeA01730,

Except for the PDF XChange Lite, do you have the PDF Editor installed as well?

You may as well check if you do not have this enabled:

image.png

Regards.

MikeA01730 · Post by **MikeA01730** » Mon Jul 21, 2025 4:20 pm

Hi,

Thanks for your replies.

Lev, your link to "How do I re-register the shell extensions?" has 2 methods. The first requires that I run XCShInfoSetup.exe in "C:\Program Files\Tracker Software\Shell Extensions". However that folder doesn't exist, and that program doesn't exist anywhere on my C: drive. The second requires that "C:\Program Files\Tracker Software\Shell Extensions\XCShInfo.x64.dll" exists, but that program doesn't exist anywhere either.

Dimitar, I didn't install the PDF Editor. I only want the PDF printer.

I ran Repair from Settings/Apps & features. It ran successfully but didn't fix the problem.

I tried installing PDF-XChange Editor without a license. That fixes the problem, but it adds an obnoxious watermark to the PDF.

So it looks like PDF-XChange Printer Lite Free intentionally doesn't support thumbnails, and when it's installed with PDF-XChange Editor free it does, but it adds that obnoxious watermark. My options appear to be look somewhere else for a free viewer, or pay $62 to get this one.

Do you see any other options?

Thanks,
Mike

lev · Post by **lev** » Tue Jul 22, 2025 12:54 am

Mike,

PDF-XChange Lite is free and would not place watermarks onto a PDF. Verify that you are indeed using the Lite printer rather than the Pro.

You may use your default PDF viewer to see previews in Windows. I don't know why its shell extensions got messed up when you installed the printer, but you can get that fixed. Google Enable thumbnail preview of PDFs in Windows Explorer and add your default PDF viewer name to the search.

Hope this helps.

Willy Van Nuffel · Post by **Willy Van Nuffel** » Tue Jul 22, 2025 6:40 am

Some additional info:

1) PDF-XChange Shell Extensions are included in the PDF-XChange Editor installation package, not in the PDF-XChange Printer Lite package.

2) PDF-XChange Printer Lite exists in two versions:
- a licensed version, included in the PDF-XChange Editor installation package
- a free version, for non-commercial use, available as a separate package.
See : https://www.pdf-xchange.com/product/pdf-xchange-lite
Use the "Download" button on the right, not the left one.

So, to avoid publicity stamps when using the PDF-XChange Lite printer:
- during installation of PDF-XChange Editor, choose Custom Installation and DO NOT install the included PDF-XChange Lite printer
- download and install the PDF-XChange Printer Lite Free

Keep us posted.

Kind regards.

MikeA01730 · Post by **MikeA01730** » Tue Jul 22, 2025 8:17 pm

Hi,

This morning I looked for responses to my message yesterday, and somehow missed your replies. Thinking I had no other good options I went ahead and purchased the PDF-XChange Editor. That did the trick: I see the thumbnails as expected for PDFs generated now. Apparently there's no problem with the explorer: I could always see thumbnails in PDFs that had the information, and after the installation the new PDFs started displaying the thumbnails.

It turned out to be expensive for a PDF viewer, but that's on me. Next time I'll check more carefully.

Thanks for taking the time to provide detailed assistance.

Regards,
Mike

Tue Jul 22, 2025 11:16 pm

MikeA01730 · Post by **MikeA01730** » Wed Jul 23, 2025 5:08 pm

Hi,

I thought I was out of the woods, but I'm not. Everything seemed to be working fine. But then I noticed that when I print to a PDF from a Thunderbird email that contains a link, the link disappears. The text that identifies the link shows, but the link isn't there.

I thought maybe Thunderbird printing was the problem, so I copied some text containing the link from the email into a Word document. I verified that the link worked in the Word document, printed to a PDF, and found that the link wasn't there either.

I uninstalled and reinstalled just to make sure that wasn't the problem, but that didn't help. Before I picked the PDF-XChange printer I tested this feature and it worked. Unfortunately I don't recall exactly how I tested.

The Word document and PDF can be seen in https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/egtyt7l2bu22mh18s9g9s/ANdQYuCiu1_qFIJiDY_2gbk?rlkey=e16s7ir3y2pzcmvaqkrao5rhv&dl=0.

Any idea how to make this work?

Thanks,
Mike

Willy Van Nuffel · Post by **Willy Van Nuffel** » Wed Jul 23, 2025 6:46 pm

Hi,

When you print to PDF via PDF-XChange Printer Lite or PDF-XChange Printer Standard, hyperlinks do not remain.

You can better open Microsoft Word-files directly with PDF-XChange Editor, via the File > Open menu or via drag-and-drop onto the PDF-XChange Editor window. Hyperlinks will stay.

I have no experience with Thunderbird, but probably you can save mails as *.eml or *.msg ?
If yes, you can open these file types also with PDF-XChange Editor. Chances are high that hyperlinks will still work.

See below a list of currently supported file types in PDF-XChange Editor, via File > Open > Browse and then click the down arrow on "PDF documents (*.pdf)".

Does that help ?

Kind regards.
°

PDF-XChange Editor - Open other file types.png