Two ways to fix WebP thumbnails not showing in Windows Explorer.
WebP keeps website images small, but Windows Explorer doesn’t always handle it gracefully. Many images I save from the web now arrive in this format. They can take roughly half the space of a comparable JPG without an obvious visual difference, helping pages load faster.
The inconvenience appears in Explorer: switch to large icons and the WebP thumbnails may still be blank. A folder full of identical icons makes finding a particular image tedious. Fortunately, the usual causes are straightforward to check.
Comparing the exact same photo saved in four formats makes the difference clear
A 1280×1280 photo was converted into GIF, JPG, and WebP using BandiView and compared with the original PNG. The PNG was 2.56MB, and the WebP dropped to 184KB, which is about 7% of the PNG. Compared to JPG, WebP is about 46% smaller. If you upload 20 photos in a single post, the page weight changes noticeably. However, JPG and WebP file sizes go up and down depending on the quality value selected when saving. You must match the quality values similarly to fairly compare the two formats.
WebP packs the roles of three formats into a single file
| Feature | JPG | PNG | GIF | WebP |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Compression | Lossy | Lossless | Lossless (limited colors) | Lossy/Lossless |
| File Size | Small | Large | Medium (Large for animations) | Very Small |
| Transparency | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Colors | ~16.7 million | ~16.7 million | 256 | ~16.7 million |
| Compatibility | Most | Most | Most | Modern browsers |
| Primary Use | General images | Logos, captures, transparent images | Short animations | Web images |
WebP is an image format released by Google in 2010. Lossy compression, which sacrifices a bit of image quality to reduce file size, belongs to JPG. Lossless compression without quality loss and transparent backgrounds belong to PNG, and moving images belong to GIF. WebP supports all three in a single format. Google states that WebP is 25~34% smaller than JPG based on lossy compression. Chrome, Edge, Firefox, and Safari all display WebP.
Moving webp test use case
Naver Blog supports animated WebP as well, so the format isn’t limited to a separate website. On WordPress, I use a conversion plugin to turn uploaded images into WebP automatically. That removes another repetitive choice from writing a post: I can upload the pictures without thinking about a separate conversion every time. As the library grows, the storage saving becomes more meaningful too. I still keep the original JPG and PNG files separately. Some other platforms or editing programs won’t accept WebP, and keeping the originals avoids making the website’s final delivery format the only copy available for future use.
Captured images go in as PNG, and the final format is decided by the server
When you capture the screen with Win+Shift+S, the clipboard contains image data rather than a file. The moment you paste it into Chrome or Edge, the browser turns this data into a PNG file and uploads it. While text and screen elements remain clear, the file size is relatively large. Afterward, site servers often convert PNG back to JPG or WebP. If you use WordPress with a WebP conversion plugin, you don’t need to worry much about the captured image size. In other words, there is no need to convert captures separately.
For Explorer thumbnails, start by installing the codec
The reason Windows Explorer cannot render WebP thumbnails is often because the default codec is missing. The solution is in the Microsoft Store. Search for “WebP Image Extension” in the store and install it. It is a free extension distributed by Microsoft, and once installed, Explorer and the Photos app can read WebP. It is also convenient because there is no separate setting screen, so installation completes the process.
Explorer may need to restart before it picks up the extension. Close and reopen it, restart it from Task Manager, or reboot the PC. If the codec is already installed, check the Store for updates. Also turn off “Always show icons, never thumbnails” in Folder Options; that setting hides JPG thumbnails as well.
If you still only see icons after installation, it is time to suspect file associations. Third-party viewers like FastStone sometimes take over .webp associations and block thumbnail processing. You can search for .webp in Windows default app settings and change the associated app to “Photos.” If it still remains the same, clear the “Thumbnails” cache in Disk Cleanup and reboot. You can continue to use FastStone via the right-click “Open with” menu.
WebP’s weakness is the support speed of operating systems and programs rather than the format itself
The awkward part of WebP is often the pace at which operating systems and individual programs support it, rather than a limit in what the format can contain. Built-in thumbnail handling in Windows would remove this extra maintenance. Meanwhile, newer formats such as AVIF are already part of the discussion. For the moment, I see WebP as a practical compromise between smaller files and usable compatibility. I don’t regard a blog’s image format as something chosen once for all time. It is a decision worth revisiting every few years as the software around it changes.
