Techniques for enhancing the viewing of applications in a preview provider are provided. A method includes receiving an indication to provide a preview mode on a display of the computing device, providing screenshots of a plurality of applications in the preview mode such that the screenshots are accessible for viewing by a user. The method also includes identifying the first application to provide the first screenshot in an updated mode and changing a state of the first application from a suspended state to an inactive state by allocating processing time of the one or more processors to the first application, and displaying updates of the first screenshot while the first application is in the inactive state.