Can't view Thumbnails?

Infopackets Reader Al D. writes:

" Dear Dennis,

A little while back, I wrote to you about a problem I had not being able to view my thumbnail pictures when browsing my video files. Normally the thumbnail view provides a still photo for each file, so that I can preview and identify the proper video.

At any rate: I have hundreds of video clips on my computer (mostly in .mpeg video format). Shortly after I installed Nero Vision Express 3 (a CD / DVD burning software program), I lost the ability to preview my thumbnails. Now when I use the thumbnail view, I get a standard Windows Media Player icon (instead of a still video shot), and it makes it very difficult to figure out what video is what. The strange thing is that the rest of my video files (the ones that are not mpeg) can view the thumbnail still shots!

You answered me saying maybe uninstalling Nero might restore my thumbnail pictures. I tried it but it didn't work, however I really did appreciate your insight. Anyhow, I just wanted to let you know that I figured out how to solve this problem -- finally! -- and I thought you and your Readers might like to know the solution, too.

All that you need to do is click Start -> run, and type in:

REGSVR32 SHMEDIA.DLL [and click ok].

This will re-enable movie previews (thumbnails) for Windows Explorer. On a side note, I also found that you can *disable* the previews by using the /u switch (similar to above):

REGSVR32 /u SHMEDIA.DLL [and click ok].

Thanks again for the great newsletter and please pass this note on! "

My response:

Excellent -- and thanks for the tip!