One of the irritating features of Windows is the way in which folder icons are displayed randomly.  Or at least it seems randomly.  You set a folder view to a certain setting, come back to the window a minute later and it is a different view.  Chances are this behaviour is occurring because of the Thumbnail Cache.  Here’s how to fix it.

Windows will show a folder in thumbnail view if it finds a THUMBS.DB file in the folder.  THUMBS.DB is a cache file that is used by Windows in any folder it finds a picture or video so that the next time you view the folder, the thumbnails will be loaded faster so you don’t have to wait.

You can delete the file and the thumbnail view will go away, but only until Windows re-creates the thumbs.db for that folder.  The best option is to disable this behaviour.

In Windows Explorer, go to Tools, then Folder Options and click on the View tab.

Check the box Do not cache thumbnails and click OK. Windows will no longer automatically create a THUMBS.DB.  What this means is that you can set a folder view to list or detail and it will remain that way.

You can disable the behaviour system wide by changing a registry entry.

Open the registry (regedit.exe) from the Run command and navigate to the following key:

HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersion ExplorerAdvanced

Double click on the DisableThumbnailCache key in the right-hand pane and change the value to 1. If the key is not there, go to Edit, then New and choose DWORD Value to create one with the same name.

Close the Registry and reboot your computer for the changes to take effect.

Alternatively, you can download the reg file here.

Tags | General, Windows XP