Blender .blend thumbnails in Windows Explorer

SageThumbs 2K shows the preview picture Blender stores in each .blend file, so your scenes appear as thumbnails in File Explorer. Blender's numbered backups, .blend1 to .blend32, get the same treatment.

What you see

The thumbnail is the preview Blender saved into the file. SageThumbs reads it straight out of the .blend; it does not open or render the scene.
Backup copies, .blend1 through .blend32, show their own stored preview, so you can tell versions apart before opening one.
Large .blend files are not loaded whole. The preview is pulled out of the file directly, so the preview pane stays quick even for heavy scenes.

Limits

What you see is the stored preview, not a fresh render: the scene as it was when the file was saved.
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

Press Space on a .blend for a larger look in Quick preview, or use the Explorer preview pane, without starting Blender.

Extensions this covers

.blend .blend1 .blend2 .blend3 .blend4 .blend5 .blend6 .blend7 .blend8 .blend9 .blend10 .blend11 .blend12 .blend13 .blend14 .blend15 .blend16 .blend17 .blend18 .blend19 .blend20 .blend21 .blend22 .blend23 .blend24 .blend25 .blend26 .blend27 .blend28 .blend29 .blend30 .blend31 .blend32

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

Get SageThumbs 2K

Install it with winget:

winget install LunarWerxs.SageThumbs2K

Or download the installer from GitHub and run it.

Download the installer

Windows 11 and 10, 64-bit, on x64 and Arm. The same page has a portable zip that needs no installing.

Free for personal use

Home, hobby and other non-commercial use is free: every format and every tool. A company, a shop or anyone doing paid work needs a business licence for each PC.

A business licence is US$49 per PC once, with 12 months of updates, or US$2.99 per PC a month. See business licence pricing

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.