Rebuild the thumbnail cache on Windows 10 with Disk Cleanup

1. Open File Explorer
2. Click on This PC from the left side
3. Under the “Devices and drives” section, right-click the “C:” drive (where Windows 10 is installed) and select the Properties option
4. Click the Disk Cleanup button
5. Check the Thumbnails option
6. Clear all the other options
7. Click the OK button
8. Click the Delete Files button.

Use Command Prompt to delete and clear the thumbnail cache

1. Open Start
2. Search for Command Prompt, right-click the result, and select the Run as administrator option
3. Type the following command to stop File Explorer and press Enter: taskkill /f /im explorer.exe
4. Type the following command to delete all the thumbnail database files without prompt for confirmation and press Enter: del /f /s /q /a %LocalAppData%\Microsoft\Windows\Explorer\thumbcache_*.db
5. Type the following command to start File Explorer and press Enter: start explorer.exe.

Restore thumbnails preview

In the case that thumbnails are still not showing at all on Windows 10, chances are that someone or something messed up with your folder settings.

1. Open File Explorer
2. Click on the View tab
3. Click Options to open Folder Options
4. Click on the View tab
5. Clear the “Always show icons, never thumbnails” option
6. Click the Apply button
7. Click the OK button.

Once you complete the steps, if the setting was causing the problem, you should now be able to see thumbnails again for files and folders.