Thumbs.db Irritants

It’s probably happened to all of us at some point or another, especially those of us who work with a lot of images: When Windows XP forgets to update a folder’s Thumbs.db file after you have overwritten some image files, you end up with some wrong thumbnails associated with the wrong images. This is because the Thumbs.db file has outdated data, and you have to delete it for Windows to get it right again. If you’d rather Windows got it right always instead of just doing it fast, you can stop the generation of Thumbs.db files altogether, forcing Windows to read every image in the folder you access, every single time. We warn you, this is slower as Windows generates the thumbnails afresh every time.In Windows Explorer, go to Tools > Folder Options > View. Look for the option called “Do not cache thumbnails” and check the box associated with it. Click OK and then search your entire computer for “thumb.db”. delete all the search results once it’s done searching, and you will never find another thumbs.db file on your system ever again!

Disable Thumbnails

Windows Explorer has a feature called thumbnail view, which shows you thumbnails of all pictures in the current folder. Some people love it, others hate it. If you have pictures that you’d rather everyone around you not see, even by accident, you probably hate the thumbnail view. If so, instead of cursing at it under your breath, just get rid of it for good!Start the Registry Editor, navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced\, and change the value of the ClassicViewState key to “1”.