1. Change the File View
You can configure how
Windows 7 displays the files in a folder by changing the file view.
This enables you to see larger or smaller icons or the details of each
file.
Choose a view such as
Small Icons to see more files in the folder window. For files that show
preview thumbnails instead of icons — such as pictures and videos —
choose a view such as Large Icons or Extra Large Icons to get a better
look at the thumbnails.
If you want to see more information about the files, choose either the Tiles view or Details view.
Change the File View
1 Open the folder containing the files you want to view.
2 Click the Views 
to open the Views list.
3 Click the view you want.
The slider points to the current view. You can also click and drag the slider to select a view.
Windows Explorer changes the file view (to Tiles, in this example).
2. Preview a File
Windows 7 enables you to
view the contents of some files without opening them. This makes it
easier to select the file you want to work with.
One way to preview a
file is to switch to a view that shows preview thumbnails, such as
Large Icons or Extra Large Icons. However, to get a larger preview, and to
preview a wider variety of file types, you need to open Windows
Explorer's Preview pane.
Windows 7 previews only certain types of files, such as text documents, rich text documents, Web pages, images, and videos.
Preview a File
1 Open the folder containing the file you want to preview.
2 Click the Preview pane icon (
).
The Preview pane appears.
The file's contents appear in the Preview pane.
You can click and drag the left border of the Preview pane to change its size.
When you are finished with the Preview pane, click 
to close it.
