windows explorer preview
 

in windows explorer on my desktop (running windows 2000) I get a nice little preview panel for the various files I click on
http://www.freesand.com/stuff/preview2.gif

But on my laptop (running XP) I don't have this and I can not, for the life of me, figure out how to turn it on.

Does anyone know?

i don't know how to do that in XP. i'd look in the folder options and stuff like that. i want to get it to stop in win2k.

Yep, I got sick of that on win2k.. you can stop it going to view>customize this folder>select an html template... [or something like that on english systems] and playing with those templates.

Hmm, XP doesn't have any customize folder options :(

You can get rid of the whole side-bar with

CP>System>Advanced>preformance settings>commontasks in folders.

I don't want to get rid of the side bar, I want it to be there and to be my friend and go to tea parties with me and play in the sandbox and nintendo powerpad games with me!!!!!

Id think its a pref in Wimp somewhere.

Folder Options/Show Common tasks in folders.

// edit

Blah, I'm half awake. What I just said didn't even make sense.

I have folder options show common tasks in folders turned on.

The best you will probably get is a still of the first frame in the Common(Video) tasks pane, and you can't be in folder view either. You might do better to switch to thumbnail view though. Note that this won't work with all codecs, In fact some codecs will crash explorer.
http://img106.exs.cx/img106/6572/y3dmyvidsxp.png

I am not sure, but I bet that MS took out the full preview in XP because of security risks.

yes it does, you can change anything...

well where is it?

http://www.freesand.com/stuff/win2k.gif
windows 2000

http://www.freesand.com/stuff/winxp.gif
windows XP

Tick "Thumbnails" in that dropdown menu, not Details.

I don't want thumbnails, that's annoying as it takes forever to render a thumbnail of every stupid file in the dir. I just want a preview of the file I've selected. not all of them.

Hmmm . . . well . . . afaik, to enable preview panel in your side bar, in XP, thats the only option I've discovered.

pooper :(

I wouldn't completely give up on it yet though . . . that's merely all I can discover trying to emulate your request . . . I'm no tech guru or anything.

There's some purdy dam smart kids in here that probably know how to circumvent the system to accomplish that . . .