Anyone here using the preview feature in File Explorer on Windows 11? File Explorer can display a preview of the content of a file in the preview pane, which you can show or hide with a click on the preview button, or with the keyboard shortcut Alt-P.
Microsoft announced a change that may affect Windows 11 users who download files from the Internet and use the preview pane in File Explorer.
The details:
- Starting with the October 14, 2025 update, File Explorer's preview pane won't show previews anymore for files downloaded from the Internet.
- This is implemented to address a vulnerability that is affecting the preview pane.
Windows 11 devices with the October 2025 or later security updates installed won't show previews for Internet files anymore. This is a deliberate change to protect devices against NTLM hash leakage that may occur if preview files contain HTML tags. Threat actors might exploit the vulnerability to steal sensitive credentials according to Microsoft.
Good to known: Files that come from the web are marked with "Mark of the Web" to indicate that. It is an identifier that marks these files as potentially unsafe. The main effect is that Windows may warn users who attempt to launch a file with the identifier.
How to enable previews for specific files
Windows 11 administrators may enable previews for specific files in the following way:
- Right-click on the file.
- Select Properties from the context menu. You can also press Alt-Enter to get there quickly.
- Check the "unblock" field under General.
- Click on OK to save the change.
The preview should appear again. This should only be done for trusted files according to Microsoft.
Closing Words
One has to wonder if Microsoft could have implemented a different fix for the vulnerability that would not break the entire preview functionality for files downloaded from the Internet. Considering that Microsoft says that the issue can only be exploited via certain HTML tags, Microsoft could also have implemented a check for these. Certainly the more complicated and time-consuming approach, but the result would be user friendlier. (via Deskmodder)
Now You: do you use the preview pane in File Explorer in Windows at all? Feel free to leave a comment down below.
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