What is the thumbs.db File? How to remove it?

thumbdbIn Windows we often see an automatically created Thumbs.db file in folders containing images. People often panic thinking its a virus file and scan drives. Well, nothing to worry about it’s just a cache of the thumbnail pictures in that folder.

It speeds up the showing of thumbnails when we are viewing the the folder in  “Thumbnail view”. The only problem with the thumbs.db file is it eats the disk space, but in most cases the file size is pretty small, hardly 10-15 KB. If you have lots of such thumbs.db file littering in your PC then you can remove it safely using the follow steps.

To stop creating the thumbs.db file automatically follow these steps:

1] Open “My Computer”

2] Goto Tools > Folder Options >  click the “View” tab.

3] Place a check on the option ” Do not cache thumbnails” and press “Ok”.

Thats it! You’re done.

Next step is to search for all the thumbs.db file and delete them.

1] Now, Goto Start> Search > select Files and folder.

2] Enter “thumbs.db” in the search box

3] In “Look in” Drop down menu select” All Hard Drives” and press ” Search”.

4] A long list of thumbs.db files will appear, Select all and “delete”.

It can be helpful if  you are having very low disk space and don’t use thumbnail views, this tip might save some valuable space.

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About the Author


Hi, I'm Vikram, a Tech enthusiast and a Blogger from Mumbai, India. I write articles on Blogging, Technology News, Windows Tweaks, Gadgets and Freeware Reviews.

Have been writing for this blog since 2008 and has 190  posts on this blog so far.
You can follow me on Twitter at @Snakebytez / Connect me on FaceBook

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