Media Preview

Quickly finding a specific clip among tens or hundreds of files stored onto a drive may be somewhat difficult, especially if there are many similarities insofar as the name, size or format are concerned. Those who choose to guide themselves using the thumbnails generated by the system may also be deceived because not always are these previews brought forth.

In some cases, due to performance bottlenecks (small amount of free space on the drive, numerous large files in the loaded folder, etc), all you'll get is an icon shown instead of a thumb. To mend this issue, there's the possibility of using a third-party tool that will enhance the capabilities of Windows Explorer in this respect.

One such utility is the one called Media Preview, which aims to bring lots of improvements to the thumbnailing function of the operating system. Very easy to install, this program doesn't come with a GUI of its own since its role is to integrate with the OS. Instead you will get a configuration window with several tabs which contain all the customizable features of the software.

The first choice you are faced with when accessing this area relates to the balance between speed and quality. If you activate the customization of this setting, you will be able to decide whether you want your thumbnails to be loaded as fast as possible, as accurate as possible or anywhere in-between.

Media Preview can be associated with all the video extensions you can think of, meaning that if the ones you need are not on the 'File Formats' list, you will be able to add them manually from inside the same tab.

A neat feature of this tool is the testing are it provides, a space where you can load a movie using the drag and drop method to view how its thumb will appear. There are also some extra features for beautifying the previews, but if you need to gain a bit more speed, you can disable them at any moment.

Overall, Media Preview does a great job and will surely be of assistance for anyone who is not satisfied with the way in which the system is generating the video thumbnails.