How to preview Illustrator .AI files as thumbnails in Windows Explorer

Filed Under: Adobe, Tips and Tricks, Tutorials on June 11, 2009
ADVERTISEMENTS

The CS series of Adobe Illustrator doesn’t allow you to view .ai files as thumbnails in Windows Explorer, previously it was enabled but Adobe stopped developing this function. Nevertheless, here is a simple workaround for viewing .ai. files as thumbnails.

First and foremost download Illustrator Thumbnail Viewer. Follow these instructions:

1. Extract the downloaded zip file and copy aiicon.dll to X:\Program Files\Common Files\Adobe\Shell; X: is the directory where your operating system resides. Create a new directory if it doesn’t exist by default.

Copying File to Shell Folder

2. Open AI_Thumb.reg file in notepad and change @=”C:\\Program Files\\Common Files\\Adobe\\Shell\\aiicon.dll” to the path specified above. Leave it as it is if your Windows drive is C.

Edit Registry

3. Save and merge the registry file by double clicking it.

That’s it, now you can view your .ai files as thumbnails in Windows Explorer.

P.S: This method is working absolutely fine in Windows XP. I haven’t tested it in Windows Vista and Windows 7.

Related: How to preview Photoshop PSD files as thumbnails in Windows Explorer


  • TwitThis
  • Facebook
  • Digg
  • del.icio.us
  • StumbleUpon
  • Turn this article into a PDF!
  • Print this article!
  • E-mail this story to a friend!

Comments

  1. [...] Related:How to preview Illustrator .AI files as thumbnails in Windows Explorer Tags: Photoshop [...]

  2. [...] have already seen a number of hacks for viewing Photoshop’s .PSD and Illustrator’s .EPS files as thumbnails in Windows Explorer. But here a better and much simpler way of doing [...]

  3. In CS4 the folder where you say aiicon.dll is located does not contain that file. Instead, it has a folder called CS4 with two dll files inside it which I cannot edit with Notepad. Is there a workaround for this?

    Written by Cameron Schuyler on June 25th, 2009 11:19 pm
  4. Nevermind. Got it to work! Thanks you genius!

    Written by Cameron Schuyler on June 25th, 2009 11:45 pm
  5. Written by Vineet Sharma on June 26th, 2009 4:05 pm
  6. I tried with Vista but it doesn’t work.
    Strange because I found the same method for Photoshop thumbnails and it worked. I’ll search somewhere else!

    Written by Hunk on August 27th, 2009 6:02 pm
  7. It doesn’t appear to work in Windows 7. I can try a reboot, but unless I report back otherwise, it doesn’t work for me in Windows 7.

    Written by Tom on September 24th, 2009 2:47 am
  8. It works! Thank you!!

    Written by jsh on December 17th, 2009 7:03 am
  9. The registry files must be changed if you’re running a 64-bit version of Windows. Illustrator and Photoshop, both 32-bit applications, are installed in the “Program Files (x86)” folder, and the registry entries must point there rather than to “Program Files”, which is for 64-bit programs.

    Written by EveningStarNM on December 30th, 2009 4:31 pm
  10. Yeah sure thing jsh!!! Did you ever try it for yourself or are you just guessing?

    Written by Panos on February 23rd, 2010 9:09 am

Name (required)

Email (required)

Website


People Came Here Searching For:

preview ai filesai previewillustrator previewai thumbnails windows 7ai file previewpreview illustrator filespreview ai fileillustrator thumbnail previewillustrator thumbnails in windows 7preview ai files windows

© 2009 - 2010 Geekace All Rights Reserved | Content is Copyrighted and must not be reproduced without permission | Privacy Policy | Advertise | Contact |