Unable to delete thumbs.db

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

Hi Sabya

I appreciate the help.

I'm looking for something faster and less intrusive than having to reboot or even having to boot into safe mode.

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?

There are already easier hacks, like

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 i'm looking for a proper handling or at least a consistent explanation.

What Paolo suggested seemed reasonable and intuitive to me and would also cover what you describe as "The file is being used by the system so it cannot be removed at that instant of time"

Try to disable the showing of system files. Go to the Folder Options window once again and then in the View tab, check the option "Hide protected operating system files (Recommended)". Apply and OK. Check if you'll be able to delete it now.

If it doesn't work then the only option is to temporarily turn off thumbnails so you can delete the folder. Once deleted, you can turn it on again. Since Windows is constantly caching the thumbnails, the file is being used all the time so the only way is to disable it so it won't generate a cache.

but even that doesn't seem to convince explorer.exe to let go of the handles.

I strongly feel like there must be a proper solution because what sense does it make to keep a thumbs.db database for an empty folder. Otherwise this clearly smells like a bug and i'm having this problem for ages, and apparently thousands of other people too so it's hard to believe that MS didn't take the time to do something about it.

Maybe there is some sort of purge option which convinces explorer.exe to go through all its open handles and, if thumbnails are turned off, let go of those handles for good?

Hi ,

Sabya here, Independent Windows Adviser. Hope you are doing well.

Most of the time a simple restart fixes the issue with me. However when the restart fails I try the clean boot / Safe mode

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/topic/how-t...

The file is being used by the system so it cannot be removed at that instant of time.

My pleasure to assist you.

If you have other issues or concerns that I might help you with, don't hesitate to ask.

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Regards,

Sabya

I'm looking for a quick and easy solution and not a painful long workaround.

There is an easier solution as i wrote in the initial post:

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.

It's just that i felt like there must be a proper solution because what sense does it make to keep a thumbs.db database for an empty folder. This feels like a bug.

Anyway, i tried my two workarounds again and the second one always seems to work.

This way i loose all open explorer windows but at least don't have to restart the whole pc and restore all previously open programs to their previous state because that takes a lot of time.

Try to clear the thumbnails and then restart the computer. Once booted, check if the problem persists. See if that works

https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/5655-clear-...

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