THUMBS.db back in windows 7?

By rusonjitsu
in Microsoft (Windows)

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rusonjitsu

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Hey all,

Right, Ive been using windows 7 (retail) since launch (having used the rc's and betas) on a clean install on my pc.

Having previously used vista, vista saves all thumbnail previews of files in a big data base file, however Ive noticed in win 7 they seem to have removed it? and an age old 'error' from windows xp that went away in windows vista is back in windows 7!!

Windows 7 seems to save thumbnail previews in thumbs.db in folders, rather than storing them in a database like in vista.

Which is annoying me as I am trying to sort out my directories, having a sort out and I am getting constant "File in use" errors because of thumbs.db

is there any way to go back to how vista manages thumbnails.

(im not turning it off.)

The folders i am managing are either new or from windows vista. (i didnt have any thumbs.db files before)

Capture13.PNG

Happy New Year

RJ

References:

http://www.windows7taskforce.com/view/1149

http://channel9.msdn.com/forums/Coffeehous...Thumbsdb-files/

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Just For My Memory

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Hey all,

Right, Ive been using windows 7 (retail) since launch (having used the rc's and betas) on a clean install on my pc.

Having previously used vista, vista saves all thumbnail previews of files in a big data base file, however Ive noticed in win 7 they seem to have removed it? and an age old 'error' from windows xp that went away in windows vista is back in windows 7!!

Windows 7 seems to save thumbnail previews in thumbs.db in folders, rather than storing them in a database like in vista.

Which is annoying me as I am trying to sort out my directories, having a sort out and I am getting constant "File in use" errors because of thumbs.db

is there any way to go back to how vista manages thumbnails.

(im not turning it off.)

Capture13.PNG

Happy New Year

RJ

References:

http://www.windows7taskforce.com/view/1149

http://channel9.msdn.com/forums/Coffeehous...Thumbsdb-files/

No. It isn't. I think you may have some leftover file from Windows XP. Since Windows Vista, the OS does not have Thumb.db. < I'm so glad of this.

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rusonjitsu

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No. It isn't. I think you may have some leftover file from Windows XP. Since Windows Vista, the OS does not have Thumb.db. < I'm so glad of this.

Did you not read the full post?

The folders are either copied from VISTA or created in Windows 7.

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rusonjitsu

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Not true, they aren't back. 7 stores thumbnails in C:\Users\username\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Explorer

Ok I have that too.

I am very confused.

No i dont have XP anymore anywhere.

Have tried this cmd for now will see if they come back.

@echo off
echo This will delete cached thumbnails and album art generated by Windows
echo Explorer and Windows Media Player
echo If you do not want to perform this action close the window, otherwise
pause
echo Deleting hidden files named "AlbumArt.jpg"
attrib -h -s -a -r /s AlbumArt.jpg
del /f /s AlbumArt.jpg
echo Deleting hidden files named "AlbumArtSmall.jpg"
attrib -h -s -a -r /s AlbumArtSmall.jpg
del /f /s AlbumArtSmall.jpg
echo Deleting hidden files named "AlbumArtLarge.jpg"
attrib -h -s -a -r /s AlbumArtLarge.jpg
del /f /s AlbumArtLarge.jpg
echo Deleting hidden files named "AlbumArt_{????????-????-????-????-????????????}.jpg"
attrib -h -s -a -r /s AlbumArt_{????????-????-????-????-????????????}.jpg
del /f /s AlbumArt_{????????-????-????-????-????????????}.jpg
echo Deleting hidden files named "AlbumArt_{????????-????-????-????-????????????}_Small.jpg"
attrib -h -s -a -r /s AlbumArt_{????????-????-????-????-????????????}_Small.jpg
del /f /s AlbumArt_{????????-????-????-????-????????????}_Small.jpg
echo Deleting hidden files named "AlbumArt_{????????-????-????-????-????????????}_Large.jpg"
attrib -h -s -a -r /s AlbumArt_{????????-????-????-????-????????????}_Large.jpg
del /f /s AlbumArt_{????????-????-????-????-????????????}_Large.jpg
echo Deleting hidden files named "desktop.ini"
attrib -h -s -a -r /s desktop.ini
del /f /s desktop.ini
echo Deleting hidden files named "thumbs.db" (Image Thumbnails)
attrib -h -s -a -r /s thumbs.db
del /f /s thumbs.db
echo Done.
pause

Edited by rusonjitsu
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C:Amie

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7 does create thumbs.db for any resource which it cannot locally index into the cache file (read network shares), here it will attempt to create a thumbs.db and litter the remote file system with the damn things.

If you get stuck in the pictured error loop, you literally have to do as it says and close the behind explorer window and then hit 'try again'

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The_Decryptor Veteran

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I think Vista and 7 will use the Thumbs.db file if it exists, falling back to it's normal storage if it can't find one.

I noticed it was damn fast at generating thumbnails for files on a network share when it couldn't even generate them on the local system, the network share still had a thumbs.db file from when I had an XP VM.

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rusonjitsu

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7 does create thumbs.db for any resource which it cannot locally index into the cache file (read network shares), here it will attempt to create a thumbs.db and litter the remote file system with the damn things.

If you get stuck in the pictured error loop, you literally have to do as it says and close the behind explorer window and then hit 'try again'

Someone feels my pain.

<3

thing is, locations are hard drives attatched to this computer. internal/external.

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jwjw1

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see if this helps...I don't have any thumbs.db in any of the folders that are viewed with thumbnails.

By Group Policy:

1. run gpedit.msc

2. go to [user Configuration\Administrative Templates\Windows Components\Windows Explorer]

3. double click [Turns off the caching of thumbnails in hidden thumbs.db files], choose [Enable]

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rusonjitsu

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see if this helps...I don't have any thumbs.db in any of the folders that are viewed with thumbnails.

By Group Policy:

1. run gpedit.msc

2. go to [user Configuration\Administrative Templates\Windows Components\Windows Explorer]

3. double click [Turns off the caching of thumbnails in hidden thumbs.db files], choose [Enable]

iloveyou thankyou. lol.

thanks all for your help.

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C:Amie

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Someone feels my pain.

<3

thing is, locations are hard drives attatched to this computer. internal/external.

I do indeed. They're very annoying on my own drives, last year we had to do a large client migration and in doing so move a lot of users. I did a cleanup of the NAS/SAN system including stripping out all of the thumbs.db files that were strewened around each user profile. Just deleting the thumbs.db files saved over 150GB of disk space, let alone anything else.

We then had to wait for it to defrag that lot back together.

The damn things are annoying, mainly small files which waste cluster space on volumes and cause a heap of problems for normal users when they get stuck in one of these eloquently designed file deletion loops.

I understand that for people with large photo libraries that perhaps they are useful, however speaking personally I managed just fine in XP with them turned off and having to generate previews on the fly; which you can no longer do.

I live in details view however.

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StarkWiz

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To prevent Windows 7 from creating thumbs.db

Go to Start > gpedit.msc

User Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Windows Explorer

Policy: Turn off caching of thumbnail pictures - Set this to Enabled

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Phantom Helix

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To prevent Windows 7 from creating thumbs.db

Go to Start > gpedit.msc

User Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Windows Explorer

Policy: Turn off caching of thumbnail pictures - Set this to Enabled

does that not also turn off the caching them here as well

C:\Users\username\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Explorer

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jwjw1

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does that not also turn off the caching them here as well

C:\Users\username\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Explorer

I don't think so...the thumbnails views of images and folders is still fast (without the thumbs.db in the folders)...and I have these in that folder caching them.

snag000.jpg

then I use CCleaner to clear that cache.

snag001n.jpg

Edited by jwjw1
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StarkWiz

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To still1 and jwjw1

Windows 7 does create thumbs.db by default. I haven't checked if it creates it in the same folder as the pictures are located or C:\Users\username\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Explorer or both as situation arises for example on a non-writable folder it would create in Users... and for writable folders it will in the same folder.

After applying policy, Windows 7 will stop creating thumbs.db completely that means all the location basically it won't cache any more, that's what the policy says.

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ObiWanToby

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Thumbnail Database Cleaner is certainly helpful. Windows 7 has to use thumbs.db to a different extent than Vista. I am too getting this error. I just want to delete a folder, but sometimes it is impossible! This is a horrible customer experience. Deleting something is a fundamental task that should contain very little bugs.

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