Hover
Rest on a link and a small ring fills beside the pointer; the preview opens when it is full. A lime ring means the gallery is already prepared. Move into the panel without losing it.
INSTALLATION
Install in three steps.
Download LinkPeek.zip and unzip it. Move the LinkPeek folder somewhere it can stay. Open chrome://extensions, turn on Developer mode, click Load unpacked and choose that folder. To update, replace the folder's contents with a new download and press reload on LinkPeek's card; your settings stay.
The ZIP also holds the signed LinkPeek.crx: you can drag it onto the extensions page instead. Clicking a .crx on a website fails with CRX_REQUIRED_PROOF_MISSING, because browsers only install straight from a click when the extension comes from a web store.
Helium and other Chromium builds without Google's branding can instead install the CRX with a click: set chrome://flags/#extension-mime-request-handling to Always prompt for install, restart, and use the install page. It detects your browser and shows the steps that work there.
CORE CONTROLS
Everything important is under one hand.
Scroll, arrows or mouse buttons
Scroll or press ↑ ↓ to move through media. The mouse's back and forward buttons do the same. Horizontal scroll scrubs fast through long galleries.
Zoom, fill and rotate
Pinch or double-click to zoom at the pointer; scroll pans while zoomed. W fills the panel with the media, R turns it a quarter turn, 0 puts it back.
Grid and pin
G switches between the grid and single media, landing on the item you were viewing. P holds the preview open.
Next link
N opens the next link on the page that has media, skipping empty ones (Shift+N goes back). Links already checked are skipped instantly. In a gallery built from linked pages, N steps through those pages instead, without moving the panel.
Endless shuffle
Press S anywhere on a page, or in a preview, for a slideshow that mixes media from every link, never two in a row from the same link, and never anything you have already seen. When the page runs out it follows links to further pages and keeps going.
Never the same thing twice
The shuffle shows GIFs first and skips anything you have already seen, in any tab, on any day, even the same picture at another address or size. Everything you see is listed on the History page (toolbar button → History).
Your saved media, offline
The media of every link LinkPeek prepares or shows is downloaded to your device (2 GB by default; media you never saw goes first when space runs out), and each file's copy lands in Downloads / LinkPeek Library so you can browse the files themselves. Pictures are measured as they arrive: anything below your minimum media size is never kept, and Check saved files re-measures everything already saved and every history entry (SVGs and mislabelled files included), removing what is too small; anything the preview turns away as too small is taken back from the history at once. Library → Saved files lists it all, filterable by GIFs, videos or pictures and by Not seen yet for what was preloaded (also one click away: Preloaded in the toolbar popup); the History view is the diary of everything shown, kept even after a file is gone. The page works without a connection and opens files full size, filling the screen with the controls fading out of the way: arrows, scroll or the mouse's side buttons move through; + − 0, Ctrl+scroll, a pinch or a double-click zoom pictures, GIFs and videos alike (once zoomed, drag, swipe, scroll or use the arrow keys to look around); B stars a favourite, which is kept whatever happens (never trimmed for space or by the size check) and has its own filter; D then Enter deletes; F goes full screen; ? lists every key. The page also holds up at any browser zoom. Every tag mined from recurring title phrases is kept: the strongest sit above the grid and the rest wait under All tags, with a filter box. Picked tags combine as Match all (each pick narrows the row to tags that still have results) or Match any (each pick widens it), and mining is cached on this device so reopening the Library repeats none of the work. The grid is a collage — every tile keeps its own shape, with a size slider to taste — GIF and video tiles show a still of themselves (a GIF's first frame, a frame from early in a video, made once and kept on this device) and play only while you hover them; either can be set to play freely instead. The order control sorts by date, title or size, and Play unseen (which shows how many files it will play) runs a slideshow of everything you have never seen anywhere that passes your tags, kind and search: GIFs first, then videos, then pictures, marking each slide as seen. Select (or a Ctrl-click, or the checkmark on any tile) lets you sweep up many files at once — drag a box right over the grid — and delete them together, Downloads copies included, or write the picked files into Downloads by hand when automatic copies are off. Anything destructive warns first and names exactly what it is about to remove. While Check saved files runs, one line narrates its progress file by file with a percentage, a slim bar and a time estimate, and it eases off on its own whenever the work would slow the browser, always finishing the job.
Slideshow controls
Space pauses and resumes. The arrows, scroll and the mouse's side buttons skip ahead or back without stopping it, and zooming in pauses it. Videos and GIFs play through before the next slide. S stops it.
Keep and share
D downloads the media on screen; Shift+D twice downloads the whole gallery into one folder. Middle-click the media (or the title) to open the original (or the page) in a background tab.
Stay on what you are viewing
While a preview is open, crossing another link on the way to the panel does not switch to it. Rest on that link a moment longer to switch on purpose.
Move and resize
Drag the header and pull any edge or corner. Your panel layout is remembered; double-click its title to reset it. Press ? in the panel for every control.
Float or use a second screen
Press E in a preview to float it above every tab and app; drag or resize that window normally. For a minimizable second-monitor view, choose Mirror in the toolbar popup, move its window where you want it, and press F11 (or ⛶ in its header) for true full screen. It reopens where you left it, on the same monitor, at the same size, full screen if it was. Hovered galleries follow automatically, and browsing inside it keeps your place there.
PERFORMANCE
Prepared before you hover, never at the browser's expense.
Auto
The default. Prepares the links nearest the pointer first, then quietly checks the rest of the page whenever the browser is idle, so anything you hover opens at once. It pauses whenever the page is busy, the battery is low or memory is tight, and gives a site room if it starts refusing requests.
Data saver
Prepares nothing ahead of time and loads only what you open.
Fast
Prepares more links and thumbnails on capable devices, still within request and memory limits.
PRELOAD INSPECTOR
See what is ready.
Press Ctrl+X, then X (or use Inspector in the toolbar popup) to outline every link on the page by state: ready, no media, loading, queued, waiting to retry, or not allowed. The panel in the bottom-left corner groups them; select links and raise them to High or Maximum priority, or open one directly. Escape closes it.
EMPTY PAGES
Search the pages it links to.
When a page has no media of its own, LinkPeek can look through the pages it links to (Settings → Finding media → Search linked pages). Same site is the default. Depth, page and gallery limits prevent loops and runaway galleries; pages that cannot be read are skipped.
LINK FILTER
Activate only where it matters.
Add words or phrases under Settings → Essentials → Only links containing. When the list is not empty, LinkPeek only previews or prepares links whose address or text contains one of them. A link's text is usually the title of the page it leads to, and a picture link counts by its picture's description. Matching ignores case, a phrase like “beach day” also matches an address slug like /beach-day, and commas and new lines separate entries.
TROUBLESHOOTING
When a preview is still empty.
The destination may block cross-site requests, require a signed-in session, contain no qualifying media, or use a layout the generic reader cannot identify. Try opening the page, lowering the minimum media width, or pausing LinkPeek on that site from the toolbar popup. Clear the cache after changing what counts as media.