Unable To delete thumbs.db

Anonymous
2013-01-21T09:48:54+00:00

Since I moved to windows 8 I have been increasingly having a problem  with deleting any thumbs.db. I do not have the files in the folder open nor did I have them open at any point prior to trying to delete the files. But I continual get the error " file is one in explorer" . I never had this problem in windows 7 and if I did have it I would simply restart.

Windows for home | Previous Windows versions | Files, folders, and storage

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Anonymous
2013-01-22T05:38:50+00:00

Hi,

From your issue description, I understand that You are not able to delete thumbs.db. Please let me know if you are not facing this issue.

Thumbs.db is created when using thumbnail preview. I would suggest you to try the following steps.

a. Press Windows + C and Type Control Panel

b. Click "Appearance and Personalization"

c. Click "Folder Options"

d. Open the "View" tab

e. Uncheck "Display file icon on thumbnails"

f. Click OK, and exit control panel. You should now be able to delete the folder and the thumbs.db file.

Hope this information is helpful and do let us know if you need further assistance with Windows in future. We will be glad to assist.

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  1. Anonymous
    2016-06-19T20:40:50+00:00

    If this helps anyone, I have gotten around this by restarting Explorer:

     - Open Task Manager (Windows + R and type 'taskmgr')

     - End the Explorer task (right click every Windows Explorer process and click end task)

     - Run Explorer again (click File > Run new task and type 'explorer')

    I did this after following the steps in the first answer (turning off Display file icon on thumbnails).  It didn't work after doing that but it did work after restarting Explorer.

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  2. Anonymous
    2016-06-16T22:38:45+00:00

    Im facing the same problem.. though there are no files in the folder. I tried your above tip but it didnt help,

    Any other way to delete the useless folders only containing thumbs.db?

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  3. Anonymous
    2016-04-05T00:53:57+00:00

    A quick way to clean up the thumbs.db files in a folder or series of folders would be to do the following.

    1. Open a command prompt window (start-run-cmd.exe, start-programs-accessories-command prompt, or right-click a folder in Explorer and select "Command Prompt" or "Command Prompt Here").
    2. If the name of the folder that you wish to delete the thumbs.db file in isn't showing in the command window, type CD "<drive letter>:&lt;path to the thumbs.db that you wish to delete>". Do not type the carats <>. The text inside the carats is variable as indicated.
    3. Open Task Manager.
    4. Select the Processes tab.
    5. Scroll down until you find "Explorer.exe" or "Windows Explorer", then right-click it and select "End Task". This  should cause your desktop background, desktop icons, and taskbar to disappear. If there's more than one explorer.exe or Windows Explorer end task on each of them.
    6. Switch back to the command prompt window and type the following in order without the quotes  "". Type only what's in the quotes.

    "attrib -h -r -s thumbs.db /s", then press Enter and type either:

    "del thumbs.db" if  you only wish to delete the thumbs.db in the current folder, or "del thumbs.db /s" if you wish to delete the thumbs.db in the current folder and all subfolders. 7. If you wish to delete the thumbs.db's from another set of folders CD to them (similar to what you did in step 2) and repeat step 6. 8. Switch back to Task Manager. 9. Select "File", then "Run new task" on the top menu bar. 10. Type "Explorer.exe" in the box that appears (without the quotes) and press Enter.

    Your desktop icons and taskbar should now reappear, and your offending thumbs.db(s) will be gone.

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  4. Anonymous
    2016-01-21T20:28:12+00:00

    The only thing that helped for me on my Windows 8.1 laptop was to disable showing hidden files. It worked immediately.

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