Forum Discussion
Why Do AI Elements Appear in Windows 10 Thumbnails?
When viewing thumbnails of certain images in File Explorer, I noticed that these thumbnails seem to contain AI-generated content. I’d like to ask: What is this feature or mechanism? Why do AI elements appear in the thumbnails?
3 Replies
It could be related to the associated/default app icon if Windows cannot generate a real thumbnail for that file type. In that case, File Explorer may show the icon provided by the default app or a registered thumbnail handler instead of an actual image preview.
However, in this screenshot the items look like Microsoft Ink/Handwriting language components, not normal image files. So the “AI-looking” icon is more likely the package/component icon or cached Store icon, rather than Windows generating AI content in the thumbnail.
Check if you have any AI-based image editing or enhancement programs installed, such as neural network upscalers, style transfer apps, or AI photo editors.
Open the images in an image viewer or editor to see if the AI-generated content is embedded in the actual images or just in the thumbnails.
