How to Fix Outlook PDF Previews and Explorer thumbnails on 64-bit Windows

“This file cannot be previewed because of an error with the following previewer: PDF Preview Handler for Vista”.

You might’ve seen this pretty common error in Outlook when you cannot preview PDF files in the preview pane. This happens on 64-bit Windows.

Well, it’s a pretty easy fix.

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The manual way to fix this error

Step 1:

Click the Start button, type regedit.exe and open it.

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Step 2:

Once open, navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Classes\ CLSID\{DC6EFB56-9CFA-464D-8880-44885D7DC193}

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Step 3:

Double-click AppID in the right column and copy paste this in the Value Data field: {534A1E02-D58F-44f0-B58B-36CBED287C7C}

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Click OK and close regedit. That’s it!

The automatic way to fix this error

Step 1:

Download the Adobe Reader preview handler x64 fixer by Leo Davidson, from this link: http://www.pretentiousname.com/adobe_pdf_x64_fix/#downl

You could download either with installer or without. I choose to do the one without the installer.

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Step 2:

Extract the downloaded files. You’ll see two folders. Open the one that says “Fix for x64 Adobe Reader preview handler”.

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Run the preview handler fix utility and click Apply Fix.

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That’s it!

(header image source: automart.co.za)

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