Tejas P Mehta

Last week i visited one of my friend and he was sitting on his computer and removing Thumbs.db file. He told me that this is one virus in his computer and this file comes back after deleting everytime. Initially i laughed but as he is not a computer guy and sit very less on computer i told him details about Thumbs.db file.

Than i thought that this problem is not only 1-2 guy but for lots of people around the globe. so i decided to write down this article.

The default behavior for many folders in Windows XP is to display thumbnail images of the files in the folder. Thumbs.db is Microsoft’s operating system way of caching thumbnail images of any image or movie file in a folder. The idea behind creating a thumbnail cache is to improve the speed of displaying thumbnails the next time you open the folder by caching a set of thumbnails for the image and video files in the folder.

Deleting the Thumbs.db file simply deletes that cache, which is regenerated the next time you view the folder contents. It is possible to configure Windows to never cache thumbnails.

If you hadn’t seen this file in your folders previously it’s likely you didn’t have Show hidden files and folders enabled. In Windows Explorer, click on Tools, and then Folder Options. Now click on the View tab, an scroll down to Hidden Files and Folders:

open Tools > Folder Options in Windows Explorer and click on the View tab.

Please make sure to set Show hidden files and folders, as well as Hide extensions for known file types and Hide protected operating system files. Now you will be able to see Thumbs.db file. Now to turn off caching of file you have to again go to  Tools > Options in Windows Explorer and click on the View tab. Check the box next to Do not cache thumbnails and click OK.

Now from now on you will be not able to chache Thumbs.db file.