Home / “Show thumbnails of files” not activated when SumatraPDF is installed from WinGet

To automatically update all available programs on my PC, I created a task “winget upgrade --all” in Windows Task Scheduler. Winget can install all updates on background, but it only supports installation with default settings. As a result, each time when SumatraPDF gets an update through winget, the file explorer thumbnailing function will be gone and I need to manually re-install the program again.

Strangely, in SumatraPDF installer the “show thumbnail” option is already turned on by default. Maybe WinGet skipped something when running the installer?

Unfortunately I don’t maintain the winget install script so I don’t know what they do.

I have a slightly similar issue.

The “explorer” thumbnails and previewer are running as a background service
In my case if explorer is not closed during an update the system keeps that service locked against changes, and as you describe the new updated installation is incomplete.

Normally I use daily portable updates and only update the installed version when I can either close explorer or cleanly uninstall as admin the previous to allow for the system update.

Note the same requirement applies to the other system option i.e. use searching services.

The problem can be compounded if there is another pdf previewer or searcher which then takes precedence when SumatraPDF is uninstalled and for that reason there should never be two installed at the same time. (This seems to be my current problem)

So for your issue it seems winget is not uninstalling services before reinstalling.