Office365/2016 files wont show in file explorer preview pane.

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kiwifidget

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#214339 7-May-2017 18:01

OS=Win10Pro

Well, pretty much as the title suggests.

Since upgrading from Office 2010 to 365/2016 I can no longer get a preview of the file in file explorer.

Other stuff still shows, pdfs, image files etc, just not Office files anymore.

If this happened to you and you fixed it, would you mind sharing.

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yitz

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#1777282 7-May-2017 18:26

So this is persistent after reboots yeah?

Do you see any instances of WINWORD.EXE etc. running in Task Manager?

Hammerer

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#1777315 7-May-2017 19:02

I had this happen for a whiel. The update I installed today may fixed it. Right now it just takes several seconds for the preview program (word.exe, excel.exe, etc) to load. If I click again on the same file in File Explorer I'll sometimes get an error message, for example, "with the Excel previewer" until the previewer is loaded.

I only use preview occasionally so this has not bothered me.

mdf

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#1777353 7-May-2017 20:08

You can fix this using Microsoft's Preview Handler Association Editor tool (old but works well, including up to Windows 10). Sometimes might be a bit of trial and error involved if you have more than one possible preview handler for a given file type. If it doesn't work, it doesn't seem to cause any harm, just try the next one.

I wanted to figure out how to do this manually, but didn't have any luck.

kiwifidget

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#1777493 8-May-2017 08:13

yitz: So this is persistent after reboots yeah? Do you see any instances of WINWORD.EXE etc. running in Task Manager?

Persistent as. Yeah. Since I installed it several weeks ago.

I have not looked in Task Manager for running instances.

So far, not exactly enjoying this version of Office. I purchased a 5-device sub but I've held off installing it on anything else.

Hammerer:

I had this happen for a whiel. The update I installed today may fixed it. Right now it just takes several seconds for the preview program (word.exe, excel.exe, etc) to load. If I click again on the same file in File Explorer I'll sometimes get an error message, for example, "with the Excel previewer" until the previewer is loaded.

I only use preview occasionally so this has not bothered me.

I use preview a lot. Dont ask me why, I just do. Maybe it's a bad habit or something. Anyhow, was that an Office or Windows update?

mdf:

You can fix this using Microsoft's Preview Handler Association Editor tool (old but works well, including up to Windows 10). Sometimes might be a bit of trial and error involved if you have more than one possible preview handler for a given file type. If it doesn't work, it doesn't seem to cause any harm, just try the next one.

I wanted to figure out how to do this manually, but didn't have any luck.

Thanks, I will give this a whirl.

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kiwifidget

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#1777548 8-May-2017 10:01

I ran the Preview Handler Tool and this what it showed.

Yet, this is what I get...

This file, and all the other Office ones, preview just fine on my other PC with Office2010.

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mdf

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#1777552 8-May-2017 10:10

Hmm, just to diagnose the problem, can you do a search inside Windows Explorer for a phrase that is inside the word document. And if you are inside Outlook, can you preview word documents that are attached to emails?

Trying to work out whether it's a file explorer or word problem.

kiwifidget

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#1777560 8-May-2017 10:19

mdf:

Hmm, just to diagnose the problem, can you do a search inside Windows Explorer for a phrase that is inside the word document. And if you are inside Outlook, can you preview word documents that are attached to emails?

Trying to work out whether it's a file explorer or word problem.

If I do a word/phrase search then documents containing the criteria are returned. Word and Excel.

Sorry, I don't use Outlook on the device in question, so can't test that.

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mdf

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#1777720 8-May-2017 12:57

Scraping the bottom of my knowledge barrel now, but are these files on the local machine, onedrive or a network drive?

mdf

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#1777732 8-May-2017 13:08

LOL, I just *broke* my file explorer word previews!

What worked for me to fix it was using the preview handler to change .docx association to something else (I used the rtf handler but it probably doesn't matter), close out of everything, then use preview handler again to change .docx *back* to word. Reboot and everything was working as usual.

It does seem to be a known problem. There is a suggested CMD fix in this post but I didn't try it myself.

kiwifidget

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#1777741 8-May-2017 13:17

Local and network drives.

How do you use the tool to change the associations?

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mdf

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#1777745 8-May-2017 13:25

kiwifidget:

Local and network drives.

How do you use the tool to change the associations?

Local previews load pretty much instantly. I find I get a bit of a lag in some that are being opened from a network drive, and even more from OneDrive. Which makes sense I guess.

For the preview handler tool, pick (say) the Windows Text Previewer as the registered handler. Then uncheck the only show classes associated with this handler. You will get a long list. Find .docx and tick it. Close everything (conceivably wouldn't hurt to reboot at this stage). Then do it again, but pick Microsoft Word Previewer and change the .docx association back. Close and reboot. When I rebooted word previews were working again.

kiwifidget

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#1777762 8-May-2017 13:47

I was ever so hopeful, but sadly @mdf this has not worked for me. Thanks for your help though.

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mdf

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#1777766 8-May-2017 13:55

Zut! Trying a repair or full install would be my only other suggestion.