Optimization Tips

Get Rid Of Thumbs.db For Good

Many users wonder what the hidden "thumbs.db" folder in Windows XP and Windows Vista is. Thumbs.db is a folder that the Windows operating system uses to store special cached vesions of pictures and videos so that they can be quickly displayed the next time a user visits that particular folder. If there was no caching folder then every time you visited a folder with images or videos, Windows would have to regenerate all the thumbnails for display. Essentially, every time you visit a folder that contains media, Windows creates the thumbs.db folder and stores thumbnails in it.

Many advanced users enable the display of hidden folders and they see thumbs.db in every single folder they visit. This experience and be quite frustrating as it's easy to accidently select the folder or copy it from one place to another.

The good news is that thumbnail caching can be turned off with very little effort through the Windows control panel. To access this functionality, select the "Start" button, then "Control Panel", then "Folder Options". Next, select the "View" tab and uncheck the "Cache Thumbnails" checkmark option.

If you would like to stop Windows Explorer from displaying thumbnail content when visiting folders you can simply delete thumbs.db in every folder where you want this behaviour. To accomplish this, select the "Start" button, then "Search", then "All files and folders", then in "More Advanced Options" check "Search system folders" and "Search hidden files and folders". Next, enter "thumbs.db" under the file name and click the "Search" button. Delete all the files that come back in the search results.

If you decide to use the thumbnail or filmstrip mode in Windows Explorer after turning off thumbnail caching the thumbnails will be generated very slowly because they will be created fresh, every time you visit a folder. If you decide to turn off thumbnail caching I would suggest running Windows Explorer in a mode other than thumbnail or filmstrip.