What is thumbs.db? And How to Remove it on Windows XP?

Back in my school days, when I got my first computer and began exploring basic concepts like viruses and antivirus software, I stumbled upon a mysterious file: thumbs.db. Every time I deleted it, the file would reappear on its own. Convinced it was some kind of virus, I immediately called my computer technician to report the issue.

To my surprise, he calmly explained that thumbs.db was a system-generated file used by Windows to cache thumbnail images for folders, improving performance when viewing them in thumbnail view. Looking back, I couldn’t help but feel a bit silly, but it’s a common experience for beginners diving into the world of computers and operating systems. These moments, though minor, are often the stepping stones to a deeper understanding of tech.

What is thumbs.db file?

Thumbs.db is a thumbnail cache file that 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 the images folder in the thumbnail, you will see images showing in a 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 the thumbnail, you will see thumbnail images displaying very fast. The thumbnail cache file speeds up the showing of thumbnails when you are viewing a folder in thumbnail view on Windows XP.

Note: The Thumbnail cache file is a hidden file. To View these files, Go to My computer –> Tools –> Folder option –> Go to View Tab and put a tick on “Show hidden files and folder.”

Disadvantage/Drawback.

Thumbs.db file takes some amount of disk space for every single image. However, the file size or space taken by the thumbnail cache will be small. Suppose 5-6 images in a folder may create thumbs.db files of 7-8 kb. A folder with 500-700 images may create thumbs.db with a file size of 800-900kb (Approx 1 MB).

In case you try to delete these thumbs.db files, these files are automatically created again. So, we need to disable the thumbnail cache feature.

Steps to Disable Thumbnails Cache Feature on Windows XP:

1. Open My Computer –> Tools –> Folder Option.

2. Switch to the “View” tab, add a checkmark on “Do not cache thumbnails” and Click OK.

Now, thumbs.db will not be created. However, this will not affect viewing the thumbnail. In case you want to delete all the thumbs.db files from the system, then do a search on the system and Delete the files permanently, which may save some disk space.

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