How in the Tech

Supercharge Vista Explorer Preview Pane

By Adam Myers ⋅ June 11, 2008 ⋅ Tags: Customization, Vista

One of the lesser publicized features of Vista happens to be one of the more useful, the Windows Explorer’s Preview Pane. The Preview Pane allows you to single click a particular file and get a preview of the document, without opening the full blown application associated with it. Quite handy, except by default, Vista only knows how to handle a few file types. Unsurprisingly, formats such as .txt, .doc, .ppt, and .xls work well. But what of other formats like .css, .js, or .php? Those would be quite handy no?

Contrary to popular opinion, Windows is pretty customizable – assuming you like to get up close with the Bermuda Triangle known as the Windows Registry. Through the Registry you are able to add file handlers for each extension for the Preview Pane. Fantastic, but quite daunting and confusing, and even a bit tedious for seasoned veterans. Thankfully, there is now a GUI that hides all this complication with a straightforward approach to the problem.

1. First, let’s enable the Preview Pane. In Windows Explorer, from the top menu bar: Organize -> Layout -> Preview Pane.



2. Download PreviewConfig, the GUI tool that provides an easy access point into the Windows Registry that can adjust the Preview Pane entries. It allows you to add new file extensions to the default list of supported file types.



3. Upon launching the program, the left hand panel displays all the extensions with information appearing for each one on the right when selecting. If you click on an extension you are able to see it’s preview type: plain text, media file, none, or others.
4. In our example, I’ve enabled support for PHP by browsing for the extension in the left panel, and selecting plain text on the right side. Click Apply and look for the results in your Preview Panel of Explorer.