I have recently built a multimedia PC for my bedroom and for some reason i have no avi thumbnails previews. I have previously had this problem but learned from other forums members that's it was Shell Media Handler, however i have not removed it from this set up nor have i applied the registry tweak which would cause this problem. Can anything else cause this problem? I am using VLC to play videos. Thanks.

Maybe these avi files are divx ? try to install a codec pack like sldcodec.

Windows doesnt extract a preview if they are divx?

VLC includes its own codecs for decoding divx but Windows doesnt have a way to decode divx so u need a codec pack. i could be wrong tho.

VLC keeps his decoding libs. Windows doesn't know they are present on the system so it won't use them.

Do you have a "black" rectangle where the preview should be ?

Thanks for the help guys, there was nothing in the thumbnail preview other the vlc's icon.

I download this and installed it and i now have thumbnails of the videos, which is good again thanks for the help.

Edited July 6, 200620 yr by englishmen

If that was the fix great. If not there is something else you can do to fix it for all files and not just divx/xvid files. Its an install that windows runs when media player is installed. Look for unregmp2.exe in a regular install of windows xp and run that. Amazingly on an nlited install it will fix the problem for all files and the preview will work.

It fixed it for me .. hope that helps.