Vista - Vista Thumbnail Cache

2 GB USB drive with image files flashes for about 20 minutes as thumbnail
cache is generated. I can disable the caching in folder options, but then I
can't preview the thumbnails in the Photoshop 'Open file' dialog box.
Question is, how can I stop the thumbnails being generated from a USB drive,
but still preview them in Photoshop?

_*SIMPLE_WAY_TO_DISABLE_THE_THUMBNAIL_CACHE_IN_VISTA*_

After spending an hour or so searching Google on how to disable the
Thumbnail Cache in Vista, I came up empty and decided to figure it out
myself.
It was actually fairly easy, so I'm surprised that no one has been able
to figure it out.
Before starting make sure you are logged on as an Administrator. Then
follow these steps:

- First, turn off thumbnail creation by opening Windows Explorer,
clicking the *Organize* button and selecting *Folder and Search
Options*.
Click on the *View* tab and check *Always show icons, never
thumbnails*. Click the *OK* button.
- Then, run Disk Cleanup on Drive C: and empty the cache so you can
recover the disk space. You can find it in Accessories/System Tools.
- In Windows Explorer, navigate to the
*AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows* folder under your name.
If you can't find it, just copy the following:
*%LocalAppData%\Microsoft\Windows*
Paste it into the Address Bar and hit Enter.
- Right-Click on the *Explorer* folder and select *Properties*.
- Select the *Security* tab.
- Click the *Advanced* button.
- On the *Permissions* tab, click the *Edit* button.
- Uncheck *Include inheritable permissions from this object's
parent*.
- Click the *Remove* button in the *Windows Security* box that pops
up.
- Click the *OK* button on the *Permissions* tab.
- Click the *Yes* button in the *Windows Security* box that pops up.
- Close all the open boxes.
- Go back into the *Folder and Search Options* and uncheck the
*Always show icons, never thumbnails* and you're done.Now, browse any folder you want and Windows will create the thumbnails
on the fly, but won't save them to disk. I've verified that these
Security Settings will not be overwritten by rebooting Windows. However,
I don't know if the Explorer directory is used for anything else. I've
been using Vista for over a year now and the only files in my Explorer
directory were the thumbnail databases.

If you think you can do the same thing to the thumbnail database files
instead of the Explorer directory, you can't. I tried that first and
Windows was still able to delete them and create new ones. This is also
true if you try setting the file's Read-only, Hidden and System
attributes.
Don't worry about not being able to access the Explorer folder. You, as
the Owner of the Explorer directory, can undo the changes, but
apparently Windows can't.


--
Voyager62
Posted via http://www.vistaheads.com