Stop Windows from saving the thumbnail cache (THUMBS.DB) Intended For Windows Vista Windows XP Windows 2003 Windows XP, by default, shows the thumbnails view of certain folders, whether you want it to or not. Even if you choose Details (or some other view) as your default by going to Tools -> Folder Options -> View tab and click Apply to All Folders, Explorer may still revert back to the clumsy Thumbnails view. It does this for any folder in which it finds the THUMBS.DB file; naturally, if you delete this file, it won't happen again. The problem is that Windows seems to repeatedly recreate the THUMBS.DB file automatically. Here's how to stop this from happening: In Explorer, go to Tools -> Folder Options or open the Folder Options icon in the Control Panel. Choose the View tab, and turn off the Do not cache thumbnails option. Click Ok. You can also change this setting in the Registry: Open the Registry Editor (regedit.exe). Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced. Double-click the DisableThumbnailCache value, or go to Edit -> New -> DWORD value to create a new value by that name. Enter 1 for its value. Click Ok and close the Registry Editor when you're done; you'll have to log off and then log back on for this to take effect. Related article: Disable the automatic display of thumbnails in certain folders. Written by: Annoyances.org Last updated: Wednesday, February 7, 2007 Care to discuss this article with other Windows users? Select your operating system here, and click Continue to post your question. - Choose your OS -Windows 7Windows VistaWindows Server 2003Windows XPWindows 2000Windows MeWindows 98Windows 95 Previous discussions about this article: (open a message to see applicable responses, if any) [Windows XP] Question about 'Stop Windows from saving the thumbnail cache (THUMBS.DB)' Double negative? (Doug: Tuesday, January 7, 2003) [Windows Me] Question about 'Stop Windows from saving the thumbnail cache (THUMBS.DB)' (Tracy: Saturday, February 1, 2003) [Windows Me] Win Me and 'Stop Windows from saving the thumbnail cache (THUMBS.DB)' (Len Gottesman: Sunday, February 23, 2003) [Windows Me] Question about 'Stop Windows from saving the thumbnail cache (THUMBS.DB)' (charlie: Wednesday, July 9, 2003) [Windows XP] Question about 'Stop Windows from saving the thumbnail cache (THUMBS.DB)' (rock: Saturday, July 26, 2003) [Windows 95] Question about 'Stop Windows from saving the thumbnail cache (THUMBS.DB)' (Jo: Wednesday, February 18, 2004) [Windows XP] Question about 'Stop Windows from saving the thumbnail cache (THUMBS.DB)' (Robert Van Winkle: Sunday, March 19, 2006) [Windows XP] Question about 'Stop Windows from saving the thumbnail cache (THUMBS.DB)' (Kodik: Thursday, January 17, 2008) [Windows XP] Question about 'Stop Windows from saving the thumbnail cache (THUMBS.DB)' (Cindy Westhaver: Monday, April 7, 2008) [Windows Vista] Question about 'Stop Windows from saving the thumbnail cache (THUMBS.DB)' (Eris: Sunday, June 29, 2008) [Windows Vista] Question about 'Stop Windows from saving the thumbnail cache (THUMBS.DB)' (NigelHH: Tuesday, March 10, 2009) Return to "Simple Annoyances"