Vista - Disabling Thumbnail caching

Back in the XP days, Windows would generate a thumbs.db file to cache your
thumbnails. This was easy enough to stop when I did not want it because
there was a folder option to disable it. Now, in Vista, it seems thumbs.db
is back with a vengeance.

There is a folder on my system that I do constant work in, and often I zip
up this whole folder and feed it to a program (that can read zip files and
process each file inside). When I zip up the folder however, Vista creates a
thumbs.db file inside, which in turn causes the program that reads the zip to
error because it has no clue what thumbs.db is. I can view the folder with
hidden file showing ON and see no thumbs.db file, so I can only assume the
zipping process itself is generating the file.

How do I disable this? I'm already getting sick and tired of deleting
thumbs.db every time I zip the folder. It isn't even a folder of images,
just data and text files. I've looked around and haven't found an answer
(and supposedly Vista doesn't even use thumbs.db files in every folder, which
makes this problem all the more baffling), but I would really like to find an
answer.

It's really the absurdity of the problem that is getting to me. There's no
reason for it to be generating the file to begin with.

James L wrote:
> Back in the XP days, Windows would generate a thumbs.db file to cache your
> thumbnails. This was easy enough to stop when I did not want it because
> there was a folder option to disable it. Now, in Vista, it seems thumbs.db
> is back with a vengeance.
>
> There is a folder on my system that I do constant work in, and often I zip
> up this whole folder and feed it to a program (that can read zip files and
> process each file inside). When I zip up the folder however, Vista creates a
> thumbs.db file inside, which in turn causes the program that reads the zip to
> error because it has no clue what thumbs.db is. I can view the folder with
> hidden file showing ON and see no thumbs.db file, so I can only assume the
> zipping process itself is generating the file.
>
> How do I disable this? I'm already getting sick and tired of deleting
> thumbs.db every time I zip the folder. It isn't even a folder of images,
> just data and text files. I've looked around and haven't found an answer
> (and supposedly Vista doesn't even use thumbs.db files in every folder, which
> makes this problem all the more baffling), but I would really like to find an
> answer.
>
> It's really the absurdity of the problem that is getting to me. There's no
> reason for it to be generating the file to begin with.

James

I have 2 places for this option - but I don't know if changing one
changes the other at the same time:

Explorer / Tools / Folder Options / View

and

Advanced System Properties / Performance / Visual Effects


When you change the option(s) to show icons and not thumbnails does
'thumbs.db' still get generated?

"Neil Harley" wrote:

> James L wrote:
> > Back in the XP days, Windows would generate a thumbs.db file to cache your
> > thumbnails. This was easy enough to stop when I did not want it because
> > there was a folder option to disable it. Now, in Vista, it seems thumbs.db
> > is back with a vengeance.
> >
> > There is a folder on my system that I do constant work in, and often I zip
> > up this whole folder and feed it to a program (that can read zip files and
> > process each file inside). When I zip up the folder however, Vista creates a
> > thumbs.db file inside, which in turn causes the program that reads the zip to
> > error because it has no clue what thumbs.db is. I can view the folder with
> > hidden file showing ON and see no thumbs.db file, so I can only assume the
> > zipping process itself is generating the file.
> >
> > How do I disable this? I'm already getting sick and tired of deleting
> > thumbs.db every time I zip the folder. It isn't even a folder of images,
> > just data and text files. I've looked around and haven't found an answer
> > (and supposedly Vista doesn't even use thumbs.db files in every folder, which
> > makes this problem all the more baffling), but I would really like to find an
> > answer.
> >
> > It's really the absurdity of the problem that is getting to me. There's no
> > reason for it to be generating the file to begin with.
>
> James
>
> I have 2 places for this option - but I don't know if changing one
> changes the other at the same time:
>
> Explorer / Tools / Folder Options / View
>
> and
>
> Advanced System Properties / Performance / Visual Effects
>
>
> When you change the option(s) to show icons and not thumbnails does
> 'thumbs.db' still get generated?
>

Neil,

Changing this option doesn't have an effect (aside from the obvious
disabling of thumbnails.) Vista still insists on generating thumbs.db when
the folder is zipped.

The only thing I can think of then is maybe because the folder is copied
over from my old XP machine and there is some kind of nutty compatibility
thing tossed into Vista for that? It seems to be the only folder I've tried
to zip so far that generates the file within the zip.

For future reference though, yes, changing the option in Folder Options does
change the option in System / Performance / Visual Effects.