Turn Off Caching of Thumbnail Pictures

In this article I'll be discussing how to disable caching of Thumbnail Pictures which solves a great problem experienced by many users in their daily PC use. 

What is a thumbs.db file?

Thumbs.db, as the name says, is a file based database that stores thumbnails of image files, certain types of documents and video files, mostly for Windows Explorer’s thumbnail view.They are  automatically generated in Windows Vista, 7, 8 and 8.1 whenever images are present in a folder and helps Windows to draw image faster on screen. It’s usually hidden and is often impossible to delete. 

Error:

Whenever we try to delete a folder containing images it usually gives a warning 'The file 'Thumbs.db' is a system file . If you remove it, Windows or another program may no longer work correctly.'

If you are continuously creating and deleting folders that contain images it is irritating and difficult to delete the folders containing images. Fortunately there's a great way to prevent this hassle.

How to fix?

There are three ways of fixing the problem. I'll discuss it one by one.

Method 1: Through Local group Policy Editor:

1. Open run dialog box by pressing Ctrl+R and type gpedit.msc and hit enter.
(If you are unale to open the local Group Policy Editor through typing gpedit.msc in the run box Check THIS post.)

2. Navigate through the tree to User Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Windows Explorer.
3. In the right-hand panel, double-click “Turn off caching of thumbnail pictures”.
4. Click the enabled radiobox and click Apply.
5. Click OK, exit Policy Editor and Reboot the PC for changes to take place.

Method 2: Through Control Panel:

1. Press Windows + S key, and type Control Panel
2. Click Appearance and Personalization
3. Click Folder Options
4. Open the View tab
5. Uncheck Display file icon on thumbnails
6. Click OK, and exit control panel. Reboot the PC for changes to take place.

Method 3: Through Registry Hack:

1.Navigate to: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced

2. In that key, you’ll find a DWORD value named “DisableThumbnailCache”. If you do  not find one make a new one bbby right clicking in the right panel and selecting new>Dword(32bit) and name it DisableThumbnailCache as it is.

3. Double click DisableThumbnailCache and change the value data from 0 to 1.  Reboot the PC for changes to take place.

Do you find this post useful? Let me know in the comments!