“thumbs.db” Kill It Now! :)

Why do people always leave this file thumbs.db on their CD’s, DVD’s, projects, etc? In several occasions I downloaded some icons and picture archives that go from about 20MB to 100MB in size and every time there it is, thumbs.db in every single folder that is packed in archive.
If you have (uncompressed) about 1500 icons that use about 20MB space and 8MB thumbs.db file then I hope you see why I don’t like this file and I would love it if everyone who uses Windows XP were to disable generating this file, or at least don’t allow WinRAR to pack thumbs.db files in your archives.

UPDATE: This is only needed if you use operating system dinosaurs like Windows XP and older.

To disable generating thumbs.db file you have to do this:

• go to Control Panel (Start > Programs > Control Panel)
• go to Folder Options
• switch tab to View
• check option “Do not cache thumbnails”
• OK

Note: you have to do this in every profile on your computer. After you have turned this option off it’s time to delete all thumbs.db files that are already generated. Go to Start > Search > For Files or Folders, expand More advanced options and check Search system folders, Search hidden files and folders (because thumbs.db is system file) and Search subfolders, enter thumbs.db as search term and click Search, once this is all done select all found files (Ctrl+A) and press delete on your keyboard. That’s it.

If you want to keep the functionality of thumbs.db and keep them on your hard drive than at least don’t send it to other people when creating your zip and rar archives.

How to exclude thumbs.db when using WinRar:

• Options > Settings
• Go to tab “Compression”
• Click “Create default”
• Go to tab “Files”
• In “Files to exclude” add thumbs.db option and that is it

Thank you for doing this. :)