Preview of pictures on my Windows 7 computer (new camera pictures)?

I recently purchased a Nikon d40x camera and when I uploaded the pictures there's no preview! I can double click on the picture and show up, but the thumbnail does not show. I have done so much research trying to fix the problem. Do I have to install a driver or something? I'm clueless.

Thanks for your help!

V

Added (1). Thanks for the replies so far! The only problem I have ran into was this: I was reading about how Nikon is not making a RAW-NEF codec for windows 7 -64 bit operating system. Have any of you heard of this?

Http://blogs.msdn.com/b/rextang/archive/2009/08/27/9886672.aspx

I'd advise using a program called fast stone. It's an excellent viewer with thumbnails and a pretty
low end but nice editor as well. Good news, it's a free download. Google

If you shot the photos in RAW (NEF) format, you'll have to install the NEF RAW image codec:
http://support.nikonusa.com/...il/a_id/61
to get thumbnail support. It isn't on Windows 7 by default, unlike JPEG.

You can also get Nikon's View NX image editor and organizer, which is like a lite version of Lightroom; and Nikon Transfer if you need more options than the Windows transfer wizard can give you.

Gad, I wish I could disable Windows thumbnail mode! I take it you're trying to view raw images? Two options are available…

1. When shooting raw, shoot raw+jpeg (might be labeled NEF+basic). This will save the image in NEF and basic quality JPEG. The JPEG image is meant for previewing and is the lowest quality JPEG mode. It's still a pretty decent quality image. Now you can use Windows thumbnail previewer to see the JPEG images.

2. If you only shoot in raw mode, then you can extract the thumbnails from the raw images. Use a program called dcraw. With the -e option, it will quickly extract the thumbnail images as JPEG so you can use any viewer to peruse your images.
http://www.cybercom.net/~dcoffin/dcraw/
You need to look through his site for the Windows executable. This is a command line program. From the command line you will do something like this:
dcraw -e *.nef