Solved How to get Windows 11 to display thumbnails for AV1 video files?

I use three different programs to produce AV1 videos files usually in an mkv or mp4 container, Topaz Video AI, Handbrake and Davinci Resolve. I've come to realize that Windows 11 doesn't display thumbnails for any of the AV1 files I have. I have already downloaded the AV1 Video Extension from the Microsoft store and tried clearing my thumbnail cache but to no avail. Is there anyway to fix this besides using a different file explorer?

I'm on Windows 11 Pro version 23H2 Build 22631.3958

xrobwx71 said:

What method did you use to accomplish this? There is only one, correct way.

Cmd prompt as admin run each cmd separately:-

ie4uinit.exe -show

taskkill /IM explorer.exe /F (your desktop will go blank)

DEL /A /Q "%localappdata%\IconCache.db"

DEL /A /F /Q "%localappdata%\Microsoft\Windows\Explorer\iconcache*"

shutdown /p (your computer will immediately shutdown)

---

Open File Explorer, select the three-dot menu at the top of the window, then go to Options > View, and make sure Always show icons, never thumbnails is deselected.

Click to expand...

I'll definitely do that when I get off work. I used Disk Cleanup to delete thumbnail cache. I'm guessing that was wrong.

I did the command prompt commands but it still doesn't show the thumbnails. I have MediaInfo installed would you like me to take a screenshot of what MediaInfo shows for one of the AV1 files?

Update: after doing a little more research i came upon a reddit thread discussing the same issue and it was suggested to install the K-Lite Codec pack. I use MPC-BE as my primary media player so i went ahead and installed the codec pack and it worked. The thumbnails for AV1 files are now showing. It's strange because i would have thought Windows native AV1 codec would have solved it but I guess not. At the same time it makes sense that installing that codec pack would solve it since it's made for MPC player and MPC-BE is a version of MPC player but at the same time before installing the codec pack MPC-BE played AV1 files just fine so I'm not sure why it was having trouble producing thumbnails.