QuickLook

Select a file, press the Space bar on your keyboard, and QuickLook will bring up a preview window that presents the selected file. If you’re a Mac user and this sort of functionality sounds familiar, it’s because QuickLook intentionally copies the Quick Look feature that Apple introduced with Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard. QuickLook was purposely created to bring Apple’s quick preview feature to Windows.

If you have yet to switch to Windows 10, then you need to know that QuickLook is available as a portable version and as an installer (the steps you must go through to install QuickLook are presented in the video that accompanies this article). If you’ve already switched to Windows 10, then you need to know that QuickLook is available for download on the Windows Store.

QuickLook sits in the tray and silently runs in the background while you go about your day. Right clicking the tray icon will bring up a menu that lets you check for updates, set it so that QuickLook automatically launches at startup, and quit QuickLook.

QuickLook works like this: select a file, press the Space bar, and a preview window will show up. Pressing Space again or pressing Escape will close the preview window. Pressing Enter will open/execute the file (if you’re previewing a text file for example, pressing enter will open it with your default text editor). Ctrl + Scroll wheel will zoom in/out on images. Using the arrow keys will preview the next/previous file. Selecting a different file with the mouse when the preview window is open will cause the preview window to switch to that file.

QuickLook is free software released under a GNU General Public License. Please note that QuickLook has yet to reach version 1.0 and, at the time of writing this, the "project is under heavy development."

QuickLook makes it incredibly easy to preview files by bringing Apple’s 'Quick Look' feature to Windows.