How to disable thumbs.db / thumbnail cache in Windows 7,8

Don’t need a thumbnail cache (thumbs.db) on Windows 7 or Windows 8? Disable it.

Windows 7 creates the thumbs.db for a reason. They are very useful and speed up your Windows explorer, because it caches the pictures Windows uses for some folders, instead of generating them over and over again and wasting resources.

However, caching the thumbnails also costs resources, so you might want to disable it.

Download Registry Tweak

1. Download this registry tweak and execute it: Disable-Thumbs.db
2. Reboot

For more useful registry tweaks, check out our list of Windows 7 and Windows 8 Registry Hacks

Manualy Registry Tweak

1. Open up a notepad editor and insert

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Explorer]
“DisableThumbsDBOnNetworkFolders”=dword:00000001

Make sure you replace the quotes with real quotes.

2. Save as a .reg file and execute it to add the key to your registry

3. Reboot

4. Existing thumbs.db files will continue to exist, but Windows 7 will no longer create them