Quick Look is a free software for Windows that brings Mac OS like preview feature. It lets you preview a file or document without opening it. You can use Quick Look to preview a PDF file, DOC, DOCX, CSV file, Markdown, Images, videos (MP4, MKV, etc.) along with audio, HTML files, Text files, etc. All it needs is a simple hotkey and you can preview any document supported by this software in large size.
Windows OS also provides preview pane feature for previewing images, text files, etc, in a sidebar, but that feature doesn’t support a lot of file types. Also, the preview pane feature is not so comfortable. This Quick Look software, on the other hand, is much better. It opens a pop-up to preview an image, Word file, video, Outlook Email files, etc. If there are multiple pages in your file (PDF, DOC, etc.), you can also switch between pages and read the content easily.
In the animated GIF below, you can see an example how easy it is to preview a file using Quick Look software. I previewed a JPG, PDF, and MP4 file very easily. It shows the preview of selected file in a pop-up or preview window. The preview window also provides an option to open that file with the default application.
Apart from previewing files from their source locations, it also helps to preview files when you are using Save As and Open dialog boxes.
Using Quick Look Software To Preview Files:
This quick preview software is very simple and the best part is it doesn’t need any configuration. You can grab MSI or Zip file of this software. Launch the software and it will run in the system tray silently.
To preview a file or document, select that file and press “Spacebar“. You will see that a pop-up is opened showing the preview of that file. When you are done with preview, press Esc or Spacebar key to close the preview window. If you want to preview files one after another without closing the preview window, then use UP and DOWN arrow keys.
When you are previewing images, you can use Ctrl+Mouse Wheel to zoom in and out the image in the preview window. This is helpful when the image is too large or small. You will be able to adjust the image size easily.
That’s it! You need to use the same Spacebar hotkey to preview other files.
Final Thoughts:
This Quick Look feature is quite interesting and I really like it. I believe previewing files should natively be supported in Windows, just like Mac OS. Windows OS has preview pane but it is not as good as Mac OS quick preview feature. Therefore, if you want to preview files in Windows, without opening, then this Quick Look software will definitely be useful.
Visit Quick Look Software Homepage.
