For decades, macOS users have relied on Quick Look—a lightweight feature that allows anyone to inspect the contents of an image, video, PDF, or text file simply by highlighting it in Finder and tapping the Spacebar. On Windows, however, users traditionally had to double-click and launch heavyweight desktop applications (like Adobe Acrobat, Photoshop, or Visual Studio Code) just to check the contents of a file. This friction disrupted focus and slowed daily administrative workflows.
To bring identical instant preview responsiveness to Windows 11, Microsoft developed Peek as part of the official Microsoft PowerToys suite. Operating seamlessly inside Windows File Explorer, Peek displays instantaneous, high-fidelity file previews without launching full applications. Here is how to configure and use Peek on Windows 11.
How Peek Enhances File Explorer
Peek provides immediate visual feedback across dozens of common file extensions:
- Instant Keyboard Trigger: Pressing a simple global shortcut (Ctrl + Space or Spacebar) opens a floating, non-modal preview window in milliseconds.
- Rich Media Support: Renders high-resolution photos, vector graphics (SVG), video clips, and audio tracks with interactive playback controls.
- Syntax-Highlighted Code: Displays source code files (Python, C++, HTML, JSON, CSS, JavaScript) formatted with clean syntax highlighting and line numbers.
- Rendered Markdown Documents: Previews
.mddocumentation files with full typographic formatting, tables, and clickable hyperlinks.
Installing and Enabling Peek
Peek is bundled with Microsoft PowerToys. To activate it on your PC:
- Install Microsoft PowerToys from the Microsoft Store or via Windows Package Manager:
winget install Microsoft.PowerToys --source winget - Open the PowerToys settings dashboard.
- Select Peek from the left-hand navigation list.
- Ensure the toggle switch next to Enable Peek is set to On.
- Note the activation shortcut (default is Ctrl + Space). You can customise this to match your preferred key combination.
How to Preview Files with Peek
Using Peek in File Explorer or on your desktop canvas takes just one keystroke:
- Open File Explorer (Windows key + E) and navigate to any folder containing documents, code, or images.
- Click once on a file to select it.
- Press Ctrl + Space (or your custom shortcut).
- The Peek window appears instantly, displaying:
- Full preview of the file contents.
- File dimensions, file size, and last modified date.
- An Open with button in the top-right corner if you decide to launch the full program.
- Use the Up and Down arrow keys to browse through adjacent files in the folder; Peek updates its preview dynamically for each highlighted file.
- Press Esc or tap the shortcut again to dismiss the preview window.
| File Category | Supported Formats | Preview Capabilities |
|---|---|---|
| Images & Graphics | PNG, JPG, WEBP, GIF, SVG, BMP, TIFF | Full-resolution zoom, pan, and EXIF metadata |
| Source Code & Data | JS, TS, PY, C, CS, JSON, XML, YAML | Syntax highlighting, line numbers, text selection |
| Documentation | PDF, Markdown (MD), TXT, RTF | Multi-page scrolling, formatted tables, headers |
| Audio & Video | MP4, MKV, MP3, WAV, FLAC | Hardware-accelerated playback and seek bar |
Customising Peek Behaviour and Theme
Inside PowerToys Settings > Peek, you can adjust display preferences:
- Automatically Close Peek: Enable this toggle so clicking outside the preview window dismisses it automatically.
- Preview Window Dimensions: Resize the window once, and Peek remembers your preferred dimensions for subsequent previews.