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Via default Windows XP doesn´t create "thumbs.db"-files on removable devices, like usb-sticks. How can this be changed? I guess a registry setting would be the deal, but what entry in detail? Any hint to search for in the registry?

Issue´s background: People often don´t like "thumbs.db" because they all have ultra-fast computers and of course modern USB 3.0 gear. If you have loads of PDFs, big compressed TIFF images and so on, it often takes too much time to generate the thumbnail-previews on the fly, so the precalculated thumbs.db file would help pretty much.

Didi
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1 Answers1

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Meanwhile I managed to find at least 2 workarounds for my problem, so here is the current sum-up of my possibilities I am aware of:

  • Best workaround seems to be the trick, mentioned here: How to mount a USB thumb drive as "Fixed" instead of "Removable" . It´s a bit uncomfortable to arrange that mount-point, but it works perfectly in Windows XP Home. Funny to see that thumbs.db can be generated in the mount-point-folder, but not at the removable-usb-drive-folder - both in the same explorer-window. If Windows would know, what Windows knows...

  • Another, more uncomfortable workaround is to create a ".vmdk" virtual disk on the usb-stick, and mount that in Windows XP. (".vhd" is not a solution, because it´s hard to handle in Windows XP, though ".vmdk" might not fully (esp. modify, erase) be accessible in Windows 7.)

  • A direct solution might be some undocumented registry-key (to create). Since there´s a "DisableThumbsDBOnNetworkFolders" (possible at least in Windows 7), there might be something like "EnableThumbsDBOnRemovableFolders". I didn´t try that out yet.

  • Other workarounds in general lead away from Windows-Explorer/Microsoft OSs, and also NOT towards centralized thumb-databases, because they are not well portable. Basically thumbnails should always get stored inside the image-file at a dedicated place (e.g. EXIF) or also ok, bundled with the file as an AD-stream. Every program (explorer, image-processor) should read from that and update immediately on changes. Certainly all these operations must be performed reliable, without destroying other EXIF-info or recompressing the original image etc. So getting a better OS and/or imaging-software would be the vision. If not available - crowd-funding might help to make it reality.

Lust but not least, this and that from my investigations: The trick to copy a false dummy "thumbs.db" in a folder to animate Windows to do an update on it sadly fails. The file-system also doesn´t matter: FAT32 or NTFS - Windows XP won´t create "thumbs.db" on a removable drive.

Edit: I´ve also tried to activate the write cache on the usb-drive -> no change. At least I´ve tried 5 different non-documented registry keys -> no change. So I stick to the mount-point workaround.

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Didi
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