AVIF thumbnails in Windows Explorer

What you see

• Decoding runs in a short-lived helper process, so a damaged file can never take Explorer down.
• AVIF sequences (.avifs) show their first frame.
• Wide-gamut and HDR images (a PQ or HLG signal) are converted for an ordinary screen, so colours look right next to your other pictures.

Limits

• In OneDrive and other synced folders, files stored on the PC get thumbnails as anywhere else. Online-only files are left to the cloud app, since nothing is downloaded just to draw a thumbnail.

More you can do

• Convert any supported picture to AVIF from the right-click menu, with a quality slider in the Convert dialog.
• Strip metadata blanks an AVIF's EXIF and XMP in place, so the picture data is never moved.

Extensions this covers

See every format SageThumbs 2K supports or browse all format guides.

Thumbnails not showing?

• Windows caches thumbnails, and a file it failed on once stays failed. In SageThumbs, Settings ▸ Advanced ▸ Rebuild thumbnail cache clears the cache and restarts Explorer.
• Make sure File Explorer's "Always show icons, never thumbnails" option is off, and that the format is ticked in SageThumbs Settings ▸ File types.
• Run st2k doctor in a terminal. It only reads, checks the whole chain, and prints a fix under anything that is wrong.

Related guides

• HEICiPhone photos, with or without Microsoft's HEIF and HEVC extensions.
• WebPStill and animated WebP, decoded by SageThumbs itself.
• Radiance HDRHDRI environment maps and Radiance images, tone-mapped.