Unable to delete thumbs.db

Anonymous
2023-03-22T08:55:44+00:00

I'm on the newest Win10 and am looking for a way to delete folders which only contain one file, the thumbs.db, and nothing else.

I've read several things in this thread (which is now closed) where some didn't help and others were too painful to be even tried (why should i have to boot in safe mode?).

Is there a easy way to delete those folders?

I'm often succeeding with restarting explorer.exe from the taskmanager's app tab (wondering why explorer.exe is the only process offering "restart" in its context menu) and then being quick enough to delete such folders before explorer grabs em again. But there are always some hard ones which somehow escape this hack.

For such the only working thing i know of is to actually end all explorer.exe processes, delete the folder from a cmd line with rmdir /S/Q "foldername" and restart explorer.exe. But both approaches are a pain because usually i have many explorer.exe windows open an don't like to restore them all manually because that's a waste of time.

Is there a proper way to delete those folders which doesn't involve hacking the registry, changing system wide settings, booting from a linux live cd or killing explorer.exe? After all their empty so i don't understand why there's the need to hold on to a thumbs.db which by then shouldn't contain any thumbs. Maybe there's a purge-unused-thumbs option somewhere?

Windows for home | Windows 10 | Files, folders, and storage

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

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  1. Anonymous
    2024-09-26T18:13:56+00:00

    To delete the Thumbs.db file copy a JPG image into the file with the Thumbs.db file. Then go to view and select "extra large icons" you can then delete the Thumbs.db file. Then delete the JPG file.

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  2. Anonymous
    2024-11-07T14:25:28+00:00

    I just tried a bunch of little things. I remember that sometimes all I had to do was wait and work with other directories for a bit, and try again. I do not know if it was copying files, or making large icons on another directory, but it worked.

    Thing is, the specifics of it were still a mystery.

    So I tried changing the file name. It would not let me

    I changed the folder name. I still could not delete the file.

    I moved it to a different network folder, still no dice....

    So on a whim, I moved it to my desktop/local drive. It asked 'are you sure you want to do that?'. I said yep!

    I then right clicked on it and I could delete it from the desktop.

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  3. Anonymous
    2024-07-18T11:57:45+00:00

    Hello. I have NOOOO idea why this work for me but thank god it does.

    I can't delete them but very weirdly, I can rename them.

    After that, I can delete them.

    Just don't try to delete them first, it increases the lock-out permissions or something and you can't edit after that until some time goes by. I don't know the trick number required for that time.

    Give it a try.

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  4. Anonymous
    2024-06-12T18:13:02+00:00

    Rename the Thumbs.db file to Thumbs.dat - you will then be able to delete it and the file folder it resides in.

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  5. Anonymous
    2023-03-23T17:44:04+00:00

    Hi,

    I am sorry there are no purge options like that. Windows is constantly using that file and so unless a restart takes place or you kill the file it will be used.

    There are many third party apps which can kill the file being used and you will be able to delete it.

    A few years back I used an application called unlocker which could easily kill the process and delete the file.

    You can request the purge option feature by using the feedback hub

    https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/sen...

    This option will be really useful to all, everyone of us faces this issue at least a few times a year if the folder has images in it.

    Restarting the explorer is also same as ending all the process and loading it up. Thiis stops the file from being used and you can safely delete it.

    Regards

    Sabya

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