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

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  1. Anonymous
    2025-02-12T16:12:02+00:00

    I find if I change view options in windows explore to - hide system files, and not view hidden files. Next the important key part: in task manager (ctrl + alt + del) is to restart windows explorer. A lot of people miss this step.

    If it still doesn't work, additionally change windows explorer options:

    always show icons/never thumbnails, and uncheck display icons on thumbnails.

    Again, restart windows explorer.

    Works on multiple work stations for me with platform win10 & win11.

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  2. Anonymous
    2024-12-17T19:46:34+00:00

    I just rename and if that works, delete. Other than that? I don't edit my registry either.

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  3. Anonymous
    2024-12-16T21:55:08+00:00

    I've tried that but it copied it to the desktop rather than moving it. I could delete the copy from the desktop but the original file remains 'open' and therefore unable to be deleted.

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  4. Anonymous
    2024-10-16T15:44:47+00:00

    Hello,

    To delete network shares with thumbs.db with the Registry, use these steps:

    1. Open Start.
    2. Search for regedit, right-click the top result, and select the Run as administrator option.
    3. Browse the following path: 
       HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows
    4. Right-click the Windows folder, select the New submenu, and click on Key. Create Explorer Registry key
    5. Name the key Explorer and press Enter.
    6. Right-click the newly created key, select the New submenu, and click on the “DWORD (32-bit) Value” option. Registry create DisableThumbsDBOnNetworkFolders DWORD
    7. Name the DWORD DisableThumbsDBOnNetworkFolders and press Enter.
    8. Double-click the newly created DWORD and change its value from 0 to 1. Registry disable thumbnail caching policy to delete thumbs.db files
    9. Click the OK button.
    10. Restart your computer.

    Once you complete the steps, the new settings will apply, and you should now be able to delete thumbs.db files without the “The action can’t be completed because the file is open in Windows Explorer” message.

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  5. Anonymous
    2024-06-01T15:52:56+00:00

    I really appreciate that - both in the detailed, chronological sequence (which made it easy to follow), and the fact that it worked!

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