Something is wrong with my preview handlers in Outlook.
When I receive an email with a .txt attachment*, if I click on it, I get this message in the preview pane:
This file cannot be previewed because of an error with the following previewer:
Windows TXT previewer
*This problem applies not only to .txt files, but to any file types that are associated with the prevhost.exe preview handler (e.g., .rtf,. .sql, .reg, .bat, etc)
Following a suggestion from this post, I deleted the Windows TXT Previewer from the following registry folder (after backing it up, of course):
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\PreviewHandlers]
This fixed the problem with Outlook (instantly), but broke the Preview Handler in Windows Explorer. (The Preview Pane in Explorer now displays "No preview available"). Conversely, when I restored the registry key, it fixed the Windows Explorer previewer, but it broke the Outlook previewer again.
Other things I've tried without success:
- attaching
prevhost.exeto the debugger in Visual Studio, but I don't have the source code and can't read assembly. - running
sfc /scannow - Disabling the Windows TXT previewer in
Outlook->Options->Trust Center->Settings->Attachment Handling->Previewers(this just displayed a new message in the preview pane: "previewer has been disabled" with a button to re-enable it, which simply restored the original error message.
Other suggestions??