Explorer image preview

[paulcedarhill]

Is there a way to turn off the image preview function in wondows explorer?

I have to access folders with multiple GIF files in them and the auto generate preview really bogs down my processor when I open the folder. I cannot open a file until all the thumbnails have been generated.

 

[bcastner]

Click the Folder icon at the top menu.

 

[linney]

Under View you could change it from Thumbnails to something else.

In Control Panel/ Folder Options/ View, have you unchecked "Do Not Cache Thumbnails"?

This disables automatic storage of folder thumbnails in a cache file. When you store thumbnail images in a cache file, Windows can reuse them instead of creating new ones every time you open a folder. If you disable this automatic storage function, folders that contain thumbnails might take longer to open.

You can try deleting the Thumbs.db file in the folder and subfolders that have Thumbnail view enabled or search the whole machine for Thumbs.db and delete them, Windows just recreates them when a Thumbnail view is needed. They are hidden and system files.

Your Virus Scanner's realtime scanning may be set to "All Files" instead of the default setting, meaning it has to scan all the .gif files in any folder you open.

 

[paulcedarhill]

Linney,
your answer led me to the solution. I was not aware of the folder options menu in control panel.

When I go to control panel/folder options/general/tasks and selected use windows classic folders, that changed the default to not do thumbnail previews.

Trying to change each individual folder to list or detail works but would not have been an option for me because I generate and delete many folders a week.

 

[linney]

You also have the option in Folder Options/ View, to apply the view in your current folder to All Folders. Folder Options are also accessible via Tools/ Folder Options, in any Explorer Window.