Speed Up Windows Explorer by disabling Thumbnail Previews

Tue, 04/01/2008 - 19:53 — Ciprian

Thumbnails are reduced-size versions of your pictures and videos. Their role is to allow you to quickly scan and recognize them while browsing your computer. However, each time you use Windows Explorer, it will spend some time to generate them. Depending on the configuration of your PC and the number of files, this process can be slower or faster. So, if you have an old PC or you just want to make Windows Explorer as snappier as possible, one good tip is to disable Thumbnail Previews.

First, start Windows Explorer (Windows key + E). Then click on Organize and select Folder and Search Options as shown in the screenshot below.

Windows Explorer

Go to the View tab and check the first option from the Advanced settings list. This option is called Always shown icons, never thumbnails. When done, click on OK.

Windows Explorer

Comments

Tue, 08/19/2008 - 02:47 — fanatic71

floppy disk drive icon

I was wondered if I can make my floppy disk drive icon disappear from the list of removable storage drive. I do not have any floppy drive physically instaled and I'll hardly need any!

Thanks

Wed, 11/19/2008 - 05:40 — kupang (not verified)

disable floppy

hey fanatic.. just disable the floppy controller in device manager
and surely the icon will disappear afterwards

Sun, 12/07/2008 - 03:28 — Anonymous (not verified)

re-enabling thumbnails

After trying to re-enable thumbnails, they don't appear. Here are the other details:

- they appear for less than a second (if they even appear) after trying to refresh then they disappear
- "display file icon on thumbnails" option under view is checked
- nothing appears after you change the view (e.g. to large from list)
- i just finished the disk cleanup program

Kindly advice me. Thanks!

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