Apple Mac OS is an operating system designed around ease of use and efficiency, which is why Mac OS developers spend so much time streamlining user experiences so that they take as little time as possible to trigger. Quicklook is one such method to speed up indexing of files and folders on a Mac, while still retaining the ability to preview each and every file, by caching and displaying a preview image of a selected file as soon as it is selected.
This is a great feature, and indeed lighting quick when in need to preview files on a pinch, may those be image files, video, animated GIFs, or even text document like Word files or HTML files.
On Microsoft Windows, however, image preview in File Explorer happens quite differently, with thumbnails that are automatically generated for the entire folder, as they become visible, without the need to select them. This may turn a little cumbersome, especially when there are thousands of pictures or videos in one folder, as it often happens when working on video editing projects, or other tasks of similar nature. Often times, loading so many preview images can stall slower systems and make things pretty unbearable, and sometimes even cause Explorer.exe to freeze.
Fortunately, Paddy Xu, an entrepreneurial Windows 10 app developer, came up with an app that works in the exact same way as Quicklook on an Apple Mac.
The app, named “QuickLook”, for convenience, is free to download from the Microsoft Store, as the following link:
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/p/quicklook/9nv4bs3l1h4s?ranMID=24542&ranEAID=nOD/rLJHOac&ranSiteID=nOD_rLJHOac-palqSfDp0DZeQBJovfebzQ&tduid=(dacb6098e9015b9e392da417bb0e55d9)(256380)(2459594)(nOD_rLJHOac-palqSfDp0DZeQBJovfebzQ)()
QuickLook supports almost any image format, including PNG, APNG, JPG, BMP, GIF, PSD, and Camera RAW, but just like its Mac’s counterpart, it also supports a large number of non-graphic files, like ZIP and RAR archives, PDF files, Office documents, which include text and spreadsheets, and lots more. A somewhat comprehensive list can be found on the App’s GitHub Wiki: https://github.com/xupefei/QuickLook/wiki/Supported-File-Types , whcih also includes the source files if you feel like developing your own version of QuickLook and expand file support and features.
While Quicklook is a free app, its functionality is impressive and very stable, with nearly instantaneous response times. This is good news for Windows 10 users who also work on Macs, and have a need for this feature.
The only pain point of this app is that it does not work on Windows 10 S, or in S mode, although on mobile configurations of Windows 10, this feature isn’t strictly necessary, as the workload on ARM-based systems is never expected to be excessive, to a point of making this app a must have.