Windows 7 - Most video thumbnails do not load

I've been having a problem getting my video thumbnails to show ever since I installed Windows Media Player 12. I already have VLC Media Player installed and they were showing up fine before. Now it's only showing video thumbnails for .avi and .wmv files (that I've noticed), but not for .mp4. I've done a lot of searching and tried many things to get it back the way it used to be.

• "Always show icons, never thumbnails" is unchecked and folders have been reset.
• I've deleted my IconCache and rebooted.
• VLC has all of its default file extension privileges, including .mp4.
• I tried uninstalling VLC, restoring all of WMP's file type associations and rebooting.
• Disabled WMP in "Turn Windows features on or off" and rebooted.
• Downgraded WMP from 12 to 11.
• Added "DisableThumbnailCache" to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced with value set to 0 and rebooted.
• Running "regsvr32 shmedia.dll"/"regsvr32 /u shmedia.dll" gives an error saying the module failed to load. I checked and it wasn't even in my system32 folder, so I tried downloading shmedia.dll, putting in my system32 folder and trying again. This time I got an error saying the module may not be compatible with the version of Windows I'm running.

None of these helped bring my video thumbnails back. If anyone's got any more suggestions, I'm all ears.

Welcome to Seven forums!

I don't know what codecs you are using, but I strongly suggest you use these:
Shark007 Windows 7 Codecs.
It should also fix your thumbnailing problems. More info about the codecs is on the site.

The thumbnails were showing up just fine before I installed WMP12 though. Doesn't VLC already come with all the codecs required to play videos?

VLC does support all kind of formats and plays almost everything, but the codec pack I offered you is custom tailored for Windows 7 and WMP (and all the other video players out there), frequently updated and maintained and its developer offers great support here and on his forums. Give it a try, see if it fixes your problem (which it will).

I may just be being fussy, but I don't like WMP very much at all. I prefer something much simpler like VLC. Do you think my problem would be fixed if got a 64-bit shmedia.dll, or am I going to have to reinstall my OS?

It doesn't matter what player you use, the codecs work with any player. I don't think that getting a new shmedia.dll will fix your problem, but I'm no expert in the field.

I also found this fix on the VLC forums. It doesn't have any confirmation it's working except from the poster. Try it out. But in the end, I still strongly recommend the codecs I posted. The pack will save you from any headache with playing video files.

Wow, you are just amazing, that actually worked! You indeed are skilled my friend! Thank you so much for saving me $8 in Advil for the next couple days. =D

I'm glad I could fix your problem. But which was it? The codecs or the .reg file?

The .reg file. =)