Show or Hide Details and Preview Pane in Windows 11

Windows 11 File Explorer includes built-in Preview and Details panes that let you quickly view file contents or inspect metadata without opening the actual files. This guide provides the straightforward steps to enable or disable both panes using either the File Explorer command bar or quick keyboard shortcuts.

How to Toggle Panes Using the View Menu

You can easily toggle both the Preview pane and Details pane directly from the toolbar in File Explorer. Note that Windows 11 only allows one of these panes to be active at a time.

  1. Open File Explorer by clicking its icon on the taskbar or pressing Windows key + E.
  2. Click the View dropdown menu in the top command bar.
  3. Hover over the Show submenu at the bottom of the list.
  4. Click Preview pane to turn the preview window on or off.
  5. Alternatively, click Details pane to display file properties and metadata on the right side of the window.

To hide an active pane, repeat the same steps and click the currently selected pane to uncheck it.

How to Toggle Panes Using Keyboard Shortcuts

Keyboard shortcuts provide the fastest way to turn these panes on and off without navigating menus.

Pressing either shortcut once will enable the respective pane. Pressing the same shortcut again will hide it. If one pane is currently visible and you trigger the shortcut for the other, File Explorer will automatically switch to the selected pane.