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Preview pane not functional / causing system issues

I have a Surface Pro 4 i7 / 16GB running Windows 10 Version 1607, 14393.953. Trying to use Windows Explorer with Preview pane leads to some bizzare results.

At times, MS office files (Word, Excel, Power point) as well as PDF files simply will not preview ("This file can not be previewed")

Sometimes, those same files will show in a small window within the preview pane, with huge scroll bars. Even the mouse pointer gets larger when I mouse over that area of the screen.

The worst is similar to the above situation, but if the file type happens to be excel, it will often be blank for minutes, as my fan shifts into high gear. Excel shows taking upwards of 30% of the CPU for an extended period of time. In these cases, if there is an excel window already open, the size of that window, and fonts / elements within it, can be changed randomly. The CPU utilization / Excel task remains even after all Excel windows are closed, as well as the Explorer window. I need to use Task Manager to End Task.

Hi,

We can see here that you're having an issue with using the preview pane for File Explorer. Since using the preview pane affects the CPU usage when trying to view Office files, we could suggest that you changed your File Explorer View setting into the Navigation pane by performing the following steps:

  1. Open File Explorer.
  2. Click on the View tab.
  3. Select Preview pane to remove it from being highlighted.

Once done, try to open files using Office apps and check if this helps your Surface Pro 4 works fine.

We look forward to your reply.

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Yes, disabling the preview pane makes the problems stop.

Just to be clear though, I hope that was just a diagnostic step. My issue is that I use preview pane (a lot) and expect it to work like it did in Windows 8 / 8.1. 

Let me know what you suggest next.

Thanks

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Thank you the information. We know how useful the preview pane feature for you. In this case, we recommend that you check for the recent Windows update on your device to make sure that it is fully updated. If everything is already updated, check if the preview pane works fine.

If you still encounter the same concern, we suggest that you download and run Windows Update troubleshooter to scan and repair corrupted updates that affects the function of your device.

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Question Info

Last updated October 19, 2023 Views 1,646 Applies to: