QuickLook Lets You Preview Almost Any File [Windows 10]

Imagine a free Windows Store app you can install that allows you to highlight almost any file in File Explorer and preview it just by pressing the spacebar. Press the spacebar again and the preview disappears.

Another nice feature of this app is when you’re previewing a file, you can press Enter to open the file in the default app. For instance, if you’re previewing a PDF document, you press Enter to open it in your default app for PDF files.

The app is called QuickLook and we find it works just as described. And the author tells you a lot more about QuickLook…

Background

One of the few features I missed from Mac OS X is Quick Look. It allows user peek into a file content in a lightening speed by just pressing the Space key. Windows, on the other hand, does not has this handy feature … until now.

I am aware that several alternatives are already available on the Internet (e.g. WinQuickLook and Seer). Despite these options, I still decide to craft another one by myself, because they are either not being actively developed, lacks of variety, or asks for a amount of $$$.

Highlights

Tons of supported file types (full list here)
Fluent design (new in version 0.3)
Touchscreen friendly
HiDPI support
Preview from Open and Save File Dialog
Preview from 3rd-party file managers (see a list here)
Easy extended by plugins
Strict GPL license to keep it free forever

Here is a list of file types supported by QuickLook (from the author’s site):

• Almost all image formats: .png, .apng, .jpg, .bmp, .gif, .psd, Camera RAW,
• Compressed archives: .zip, .rar, .tar.gz, .7z, etc.
• .pdf and .ai file
• Microsoft Word (.doc, .docx), Excel (.xls, .xlsx) and PowerPoint (.ppt, .pptx) files (requires MS Office installation)
• OpenDocument (odt, .ods and .odp) files (requires MS Office installation)
• Almost all audio and video formats: .mp4, .mkv, .m2ts, .ogg, .mp3, .m4a, etc.
• Comma-separated values file (.csv)
• Email and Outlook Email files (.eml and .msg)
• HTML files (.htm, .html)
• Markdown file (.md, .markdown)
• All kinds of text files (determined by file content)
• Other files and folders will be shown in a information box

Here are some screenshots of QuickLook previews.

Above: A QuickLook preview of an  MS Word .docx file.

Above: A QuickLook preview of a JPG image file.

Above: A QuickLook preview of a PDF file.

OK… does QuickLook sound like something you could use. Here’s a link to the download page in the Windows Store. The app is free… of course.