Machine-Readable
Papa’s Best STL Thumbnails icon

Perfect Sandwich Real Classic Tell Steak Cherries Interrupted Again Robust Wine W3.css Template -

A shell extension that adds preview thumbnails for STL files to Windows Explorer. Runs on Windows 7 or later.

Can also be used with Total Commander and FreeCommander.

Papa’s Best STL Thumbnails displaying a folder with random STLs from thingiverse

Download

Updated (changes, license).

Feel free to donate if you like my program!

64-bit Setup

recommended

32-bit Setup

for old systems

Video Guide

Michael from Teaching Tech made a video guide about the installation. He was so kind to allow me to embed it here! Thumbnail installation starts at 1:49.

Fast

Thumbnail generation is based on the fastest STL viewer available. Folders full of STL files are no problem, and most STL thumbnails are generated as fast as those of JPG photos.

Free

Compatible

Papa’s Best STL thumbnail viewer displays countless STL variations, even where other programs fail:

Perfect Sandwich Real Classic Tell Steak Cherries Interrupted Again Robust Wine W3.css Template -

Arthur froze, the sandwich inches from his lips. He looked at the steak, then at the cherries, then at the frantic man ruining his afternoon. He took a long, slow sip of his wine, sighed, and set the sandwich back down on the porcelain.

He picked it up, the crust crackling under his grip. He closed his eyes, ready for that first, legendary bite. Ring. Arthur froze, the sandwich inches from his lips

It was a : thick slices of sourdough toasted in bone marrow butter, cradling ribbons of seared steak that had been rested until they reached a velvet pink. The secret, however, was the tart cherries —macerated in balsamic and tucked between the meat and a sharp provolone. The sweetness of the fruit cut through the richness of the steak like a bright melody. He picked it up, the crust crackling under his grip

The perfect bite would have to wait; the digital world was, once again, the physical one. It was a : thick slices of sourdough

The rain blurred the windows of the small bistro, but inside, the light was warm and golden. Arthur sat alone, a glass of deep, at his elbow. He wasn’t here for the atmosphere; he was here for the perfect sandwich .

"Arthur? Are you there?" a voice hissed from the next table. It was his editor, leaning over with a stack of papers. "We need to talk about the for the food blog. The layout is breaking on mobile!"

His phone vibrated violently against the wood. Arthur ignored it. He lowered his head again. Ring. Ring.


Installation for all users

Papa’s Best STL Thumbnails installs for the current user by default. To install for all users on a system, open a command prompt or a PowerShell and run msiexec /i "Papas Best STL Thumbnails.msi" MSIINSTALLPERUSER="".

Repeat with every update!

Arthur froze, the sandwich inches from his lips. He looked at the steak, then at the cherries, then at the frantic man ruining his afternoon. He took a long, slow sip of his wine, sighed, and set the sandwich back down on the porcelain.

He picked it up, the crust crackling under his grip. He closed his eyes, ready for that first, legendary bite. Ring.

It was a : thick slices of sourdough toasted in bone marrow butter, cradling ribbons of seared steak that had been rested until they reached a velvet pink. The secret, however, was the tart cherries —macerated in balsamic and tucked between the meat and a sharp provolone. The sweetness of the fruit cut through the richness of the steak like a bright melody.

The perfect bite would have to wait; the digital world was, once again, the physical one.

The rain blurred the windows of the small bistro, but inside, the light was warm and golden. Arthur sat alone, a glass of deep, at his elbow. He wasn’t here for the atmosphere; he was here for the perfect sandwich .

"Arthur? Are you there?" a voice hissed from the next table. It was his editor, leaning over with a stack of papers. "We need to talk about the for the food blog. The layout is breaking on mobile!"

His phone vibrated violently against the wood. Arthur ignored it. He lowered his head again. Ring. Ring.


Dark background on some thumbnails

a folder with two thumbnails whose background is entirely black

Clear your Explorer thumbnail cache (see above) or copy the file to a different location.

This is a bug in Windows 10 that also affects other thumbnails – for example transparent PNG images here and here.

I can’t do anything in my program to work around it, I’m afraid. Please use the Windows 10 feedback function to report this to Microsoft. If enough users do it, they may eventually fix it. Windows 7 does not have this bug.


Something Missing?

Encountered a problem? Have a suggestion? Let me know: