Vista - Hi all, noobie with problem

Hi all,

My names Rick and i stumbled across this forum whilst trying to find a solution to a problem i have recently encountered.

After recently removing a Spyware Trojan, i carried out a super spyware, Malwarebyte's, spybot search and destroy and CCleaner.

after doing this the spyware was removed, but i have recently found that when i look at any thumbnails in any windows explorer folder i see nothing but the file name. I have included a picture example.



The blank thumbnails are for every type of file extension, i.e. including the image for folders etc.

I can change the view tab to be medium or extra large etc, and the thumbnails then show up, but as soon as i close the window and open it again, the problem has returned.

I also noticed that on video thumbnails the sides of the thumbnail used to show what looked like film edges from a celluloid image etc, i.e. film strip idea, this has now gone.

I have looked at various forums and found this to be a recognized problem, i.e. the exact same circumstances, removed spyware, now have no thumbnails.

I have tried all of the usual fixes i.e. make sure the "icons only, never thumbnails" option is unchecked, this does not work.

I have tried to repair vista from the dvd, but i am not allowed to, i am only allowed the option of a clean re-install, which i would rather not do if i can avoid it, as i will probably loose a lot of settings i would take a long time to set up again.

See if there's a thumbs.db file in that folder - if so, delete it. I've never seen this problem before...

How od i check for that file, is it hidden?

Well, if the problem persists you can try that:

Start > Right Click Computer (Properties) > Advanced System Settings > Advanced Tab
Performance and then Settings.

Uncheck show Thumbnails Instead of Icons. ( It is the 11th of the List.

At least, you will see the Icons ( No previews like the folder album art, or preview from the image on the folder, etc ) but you will get better performance in loading explorer Folders.

performance isn't the issue, the thumbs simply don't show up.

its really annoying now as there seems to be a few reports of this on the net, yet no one can come up with an answer

I know performance isn`t the problem, but if you would do what i said, at least you would have some Icons to see, better than nothing...

ah sorry, i picked you up wronh.

The issue is i can change the icons to say medium size.

and they stay like that if i close the window anmd they are fine, but large icons are the ones having the issue.

its only a little thing, but its a pain as i use the large icon feature to search through image files i have, as i do a lot of photography.

thanks for the idea though

Have you tried this? Icon Cache - Rebuild

Sorry, should have said. Sometimes you can see it in explorer, but other times you can't.

To make sure, though, load up a command promt (Start > type 'cmd', press enter). In there, type:
If it exists, it will be deleted. If not, then you'll just get an error.

\right, i have just noticed another issue.

i have always been opening my pictures folder from the start menu option.

howver whilst looking for a video, i noticed that i couldn't open up the "my documents" file it came up with a info box with a red cross image saying the C:\users\myname\My Documents is not accessible.

The icon is also see through and has a shortcut symbol in the bottom left of the icon, like a flipped arrow.

I wonder if this is linked to the problem.