July 16, 2011

What is thumbs.db and How to Remove it

This is very funny, Initially when i got my first Pc and understood some of the basic like virus and antivirus.I consider and treated thumbs.db as virus because it use to create thumbs.db file automatically as soon as i
delete the file.I immediately called my engineer and told about this file and strange behavior.But i was surprised when he explained me about this.However there are still many people who are new to computer world and may treat it as virus or as a strange act.


What is thumbs.db file?
Thumbs.db is a thumbnail cache file which is used to store thumbnail images for Windows Explorer's thumbnail view. This speeds up the display of images as the smaller images do not need to be recalculated every time the user views the folder.
Basically, when you view images folder in thumbnail, you would see images showing in small preview(Thumbnail).This thumbnail information is saved in thumbs.db file in the same folder.So, next time when you visit the same image folder in thumbnail, you would see thumbnail images displaying very fast.Thumbnail cache file speed up the showing of thumbnails when you are viewing a folder in thumbnail view.
Note:The Thumbnail cache file is a hidden file.Go to My computer >> Tools >> Folder option >> Goto View Tab and put a tick on "Show hidden files and folder".

Disadvantage/Drawback.
Though it seems to be very useful and helpful but may not be good for computer with low disk space.thumbs.db file takes up disk space, Although the file size or space taken by thumbnail cache will be small.Suppose for 5-6 images in a folder may create thumbs.db of 7-8 kb. Folder with 500-700 images may create thumbs.db with file size of 800-900kb(Approx 1mb).If your pc have lots of such thumbs.db file on harddisk which have low disk space, you can save some valuable space on your harddisk by removing the thumbnail cache file(thumbs.db).

You might have seen when we remove or delete this thumbs.db file, it automatically created again.so, we need to turn off this thumbnail cache feature.
To turn this feature off, Follow the below simple procedure.

1.) Open My Computer >> Tools(from the menu bar on the top) >> Folder Option.


2.) Go to View Tab and put a tick on "Do not cache thumbnails" and Click Ok.

To delete all thumbs.db file from harddisk, we would search the file and then delete the file from harddisk.
1.) Goto Start >> Search.
2.) Now in Search >> Click on "All files and Folder"
3.) Now type thumbs.db in "all or part of the file name" box and now in below "Look In" drop down menu choose Local hard drives and search.
4.) You would see lots of thumbs.db file.Select all the file and choose delete(while deleting Press Shift + Del).

By Turning off the thumbnail cache feature will not affect viewing in thumbnail. This Tips is handy for computer with low hard disk space.

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