Simple trick to improve responsiveness in Windows

[joelmusicman]

Hello all,

Not sure if I'm posting this in the right category, but I was trying to figure out how to stop my Windows 7 box from generating all of those pesky "thumbs.db" files all over my NAS. Yes, I know about "veto" in CIFS settings, but even with veto and delete veto files set, I still had problems deleting empty directories due to hidden thumbs.db files.

Anyway, I traced that issue down to a simple checkbox in Windows, under Control Panel >> Folder options >> View tab >> "Always show icons, never thumbnails," tick the box (enable).

As a side benefit, I found out that the speed gains when browsing and organizing directories on the drive was DRASTICALLY improved. My movies directory used to take about a minute or two to show (with ~1900 subdirectories each with a thumbnail). Now it's practically instant!

Of course, this is a client-side change so unless you're a SYSADMIN in an enterprise environment (If you are you probably already know about this!) you'll have to make the change manually on each PC.

 

[Pasquale61]

Hello all,

Not sure if I'm posting this in the right category, but I was trying to figure out how to stop my Windows 7 box from generating all of those pesky "thumbs.db" files all over my NAS. Yes, I know about "veto" in CIFS settings, but even with veto and delete veto files set, I still had problems deleting empty directories due to hidden thumbs.db files.

Anyway, I traced that issue down to a simple checkbox in Windows, under Control Panel >> Folder options >> View tab >> "Always show icons, never thumbnails," tick the box (enable).

As a side benefit, I found out that the speed gains when browsing and organizing directories on the drive was DRASTICALLY improved. My movies directory used to take about a minute or two to show (with ~1900 subdirectories each with a thumbnail). Now it's practically instant!

Of course, this is a client-side change so unless you're a SYSADMIN in an enterprise environment (If you are you probably already know about this!) you'll have to make the change manually on each PC.


View attachment 5623

I did something similar a while back to globally disable the thumbs.db files from being created in the first place. I always hated those files, especially when trying to compare directories because this file constantly changes. I have no use for these thumbnails as I don't use Explorer to view my media, and you're right they really slow things down. You can enable/disable these using Local Group Policy Editor in Windows 7/8 by running gpedit.msc. The settings are under User Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> Windows Components -> Windows Explorer. I think you can also set a separate policy for network folders versus local folders if you want.

 

[joelmusicman]

When I was doing my research courtesy of Google, I did find the gpedit method, and found out that Win 7 Home Premium doesn't have that tool by default. After more searching I found out how to add it and use it, but even after following the steps it didn't seem to help (maybe the workaround is faulty?).

I'm sure with Win 7 Pro the gpedit tool would be the preferred method...

 

[Pasquale61]

You're right, I have Win 7 Ultimate and it doesn't come pre-installed on all versions. Here is my screenshot in case you're interested. Assuming you got gpedit from Microsoft, I would think yours looks the same. In my case, I only turned the thumbs.db files off. Reading your post, I think I may enable the first two options too!

 

[solarisguy]

I did the same, i.e. doing Enable on Turn off the caching of thumbnails in hidden thumbs.db files, and after mounting a remote share thumbs.db are still getting generated. (Windows 7 Professional. I should be able to reboot that system by Wednesday, may be that is a required step...)

 

[solarisguy]

I did the same, i.e. doing Enable on Turn off the caching of thumbnails in hidden thumbs.db files, and after mounting a remote share thumbs.db are still getting generated. (Windows 7 Professional. I should be able to reboot that system by Wednesday, may be that is a required step...)

Yes, Thumbs.db stopped being generated after a reboot. Just enabling the setting was not enough.