How do I stop windows from harassing me about thumbs.db when moving files?

Question

Whenever I move a folder with a thumbs.db file, windows pesters me about if I want to move it and it is really annoying.

I was watching a movie when the explorer window and that nag message popped up over the movie I was watching.

I DO NOT want to turn off thumbnails I just want to disable those harassing messages from ever popping up. If there is a thumbs.db file, windows needs to just move it and not ask me about it. Is there a way to do that?

Welcome to Super User. I cleaned up your rant to fit within the guidelines of this site. Ranting and profanity would likely ended up getting your question closed and left unanswered. Can you please tell us what research you have done to figure this out? — CharlieRB, Dec 02 '15 at 20:41

score 3 · Answer 1 · answered Dec 02 '15 at 21:19

3

I probably shouldn't be encouraging behaviour like this, but in hopes of saving you any further monetary costs, here's what I found about it:

thumbs.db is just a cache for thumbnails to make them load faster. You can disable this cache (without disabling thumbnails) through the following technique:

source: http://www.sitepoint.com/switch-off-thumbs-db-in-windows/

Ensure you’re logged in using an administrator account.
Hit Win+R, type gpedit.msc in the Run window and click OK. The Local Group Policy Editor will be launched.
Navigate through the tree to User Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > then either Windows Explorer (Windows Vista/7) or File Explorer (Windows 8).

-In the right-hand pane, double-click “Turn off the caching of thumbnails in hidden thumbs.db files”. - Select Enabled (don’t make my mistake of choosing “Disabled” — you’re enabling the switching off of Thumbs.db. Not particularly intuitive, Microsoft!)

This will not disable thumbnails, it will just disable the caching of thumbnails to speed up the loading of them.

answered Dec 02 '15 at 21:19

Nzall

3,007

There is no gpedit on Windows Starter Edition, Home and Home Premium. See my answer Windows 7 (Home Premium): eventvwr.exe: How to log workstation locking and unlocking and screensaver invoked and dismissed events for instructions on how to download and install it. – DavidPostill Dec 02 '15 at 21:27
Thanks. I will go through and delete all thumbs.db files and hope this works. I am sorry for my behavior. I was just so angry when I initially posted. – user1182045 Dec 02 '15 at 21:28
1

@user1182045 Next time you're angry and want to do or ask something, go take a brisk walk around the block. If you're still angry after that, do another lap. repeat until you're calm. THEN is the best time to ask something about the thing that annoyed you – Nzall Dec 02 '15 at 21:34
As a lifelong Windows user, "annoyed" is a huge understatement. So is there a way to suppress the nagging dialog popups so if Windows does encounter a thumbs.db file, I am not ever asked if I am sure I want to move it? – user1182045 Dec 02 '15 at 21:45

How do I stop windows from harassing me about thumbs.db when moving files?

1 Answers1