Windows Vista has this cool Preview Pane on Windows Explorer that helps you preview a file without opening the file. This would be extremely helpful if you have bunch of files and wasn’t sure which one to open. Instead of opening each file and waiting for it to open and close, you can utilize Windows Vista’s Preview Pane to give you a sneak preview of what the file is and display its content on the Preview Pane.

To enable Windows Vista’s Preview Pane follow these steps,

Step-1:

Launch Windows Explorer (“Windows E” or right click on the Start button and choose “Explore” or Start >> All Programs >> Accessories >> Windows Explorer) and navigate into the folder which you want to preview.

Step-2:

Click on the “Organize” menu and then click on “Layout” and then choose “Preview Pane”.

Step-3:

Windows Vista will enable its Preview Pane (on the extreme right side of Windows Explorer) and when you choose the file you want to preview, Vista will render the content of the file on its Preview Pane. On the screenshot above, you can see a .TTF font file getting rendered on the Preview Pane. If you open up the file you’ll see the same exact content.

Windows Vista’s Preview Pane greatly helps you quickly swift thru the piles of files you have, if you have. Make use it when needed and it really comes-in handy.

If you have any questions regarding this please make sure to ask us in comments.