When opening Explorer folders containing images in Windows XP, you may have noticed that the first time the folder is open, it takes Windows XP a while to display the images. Each successive time the folder may open faster. This is because Windows XP caches the thumbnail images, creating a file called thumbs.db.

(If you do not see the file thumbs.db inside folders containing pictures, either you have caching turned off or you need to enable viewing hidden files and folders.)

Many people prefer the caching as it speeds up opening folders containing images. Others, however, would like to turn this feature off. Either they don't want thumbs.db files cluttering up their hard drive, or some people have had difficulties with Windows XP slowing down or crashing when trying to cache thumbnail images.

To toggle the caching on and off:

1. From an Explorer window, choose "Tools" - "Folder Options".

2. When the "Folder Options" multi-tabbed dialog box appears, click the "View" tab.



3. Check or uncheck "Do not cache thumbnails" as desired. Refer to the above screenshot.

4. When done, click "OK" to close the dialog box.

Note that checking this box will not automatically remove thumbs.db files on your hard drive. These will have to be removed manually.

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