How to enable thumbnail preview for Foxit Reader
Foxit Reader is definitely best Adobe reader replacement. However, we are not able to enable the thumbnail preview in Windows Explorer if we set it as a default PDF viewer. This tip will help you to turn this feature on.
A lot of Foxit reader users request this feature, but unfortunately they haven’t implement it, even in the latest 2.3 version. I try to search through internet and i found a great article which can do this.
Steps
- Install both Foxit reader and Adobe reader.
- Go to Start -> Run -> type regedit.
- In the Registry Editor, go to Edit -> Find. Type “foxit” in the field. Press Find Next a few times until you reach something like “FOXITR~1>EXE“.
- Browse to shell -> open -> command, copy the full path of your foxit reader.exe. For example, mine one is
“C:\PROGRA~1\FOXITS~1\FOXITR~1\FOXITR~1.EXE” “%1″ <–A - Find your full address for Adobe reader. Mine one is
“C:\Program Files\Adobe\Reader 8.0\Reader\AcroRd32.exe” “%1″ <–B
This value should be same with mine, unless you are using different version or install at different path. - Search through all registry, replace path B with path A. Remember, only replace value that exactly the same with path B, else your Foxit reader/Acrobat reader may not work!
After your finish these steps, you can view the PDF thumbnails in windows explorer while still set Foxit reader as your default PDF viewer.
Popularity: 5% [?]
If you want to be notified the next time I write something, sign up for Email alerts or subscribe to the Rss feed. Thanks for reading.




This does not work for me. I got winXP and foxit 2.3. No Thumbnails after changing all reg entrys and then set foxit as default pdf viewer.
@user: Are you sure you follow all the steps? Please uninstall both application and then try again. The most important part is the registry. Make sure you follow every steps.
yeah! its working with newest version 2.3! I must have missed one entry in my first attempt. Its now perfectly working without deinstallation.
to straighten things out: Adobe Reader must be the default pdf application before changing registry settings!
thx for reply dick!