Hi,
I have been searching and searching for a fix for this. I have Windows 7 x64. The Preview pane in windows explorer will not display .cdr files. Although, thumbnails will display when I select medium or large icons.
I have read that you need the windows shell extension. I dont see that anywhere in my program and features list.
I attempted to modify my installation by selecting "utlities" and this was already selected as part of my install.
I contacted corel and they said "Get the new version!". I really dont want to shell out 500 bucks.
Any ideas? Where could I download the shell extension? I cant find it on my CD's that came with Corel.
The Corel Graphics Shell Extension for Windows was not introduced until some time after X3. IIRC, it was introduced with X5 of the Graphics Suite.
Prior to that time (X5), the (then) current and previous versions of Windows displayed the thumbnails of the CDR files, nicely.
So, from these facts, and that I see that you posted in the X3 section of this forum, I am going to hazard a guess that you are running Windows 7 or windows 8.x and still using X3. If that is true, then you have to blame Microsoft for updating the display routines within Windows.
Now, the good news, there are work-arounds to your problem. One is the (free) XnView utility, there are others, some cost a few dollars and some are free. I would suggest that you obtain one of those to supplement the Windows Shell limitations for older files.
Have a look in Control Panel > Programs and Features. Do you see an entry like this ...
If you do, what version is it?
But X3 was not designed or tested to work in windows 7 and it is quite possible that the shell extension is incompatible with windows 7.
Ok, I did not have the windows shell extension previously. But I just downloaded the trial version of X7 and now I have the windows shell extension.
Any change I could use it with X3 still? Doesnt sound like it. I can try XnView.
Yes. The shell extension works fine with X3 thumbnails and will stay installed when you uninstall X7 at the end of the trial. But you may need to reinstall X3 at that time, to ensure that CDR and CPT files open in X3.