Basically, if you’ve a Windows XP user and use hidden and super hidden files, then you must have encountered “Thumbs.db” file located in image or movie folders. It is usually a super hidden file located and placed in every folder which contains at least one image or movie file.
It is a file which is automatically created in a folder with Movies or Pictures so that you can view their thumbnails without actually opening them.
Thumbs.db is there so that you don’t need to reload a thumbnail every time you browse that folder. Sad fact is, is Thumbs.db takes up about 2-5kb per file and if you edit a lot of stuff it’s annoying to keep seeing them popping up all over your computer. So, if you have lot of images and movies collection, these little files on hard drive can take as much space as few GBs. Ouch!
You can remove thumbs.db quite easily by following these steps:
- go to Start | Run
- type “gpedit.msc” <without quotes>
- click OK and the Group Policy Editor will open.
- on the left, go to User Configuration | Administrative Template Windows Components | Windows Explorer.
- scroll down to the bottom of the long list of stuff that now shows up in the menu on the right. Double-Click on Turn off caching of thumbnail pictures.
- click on Enable then Apply, OK.
And now you no longer have this annoying problem.
Alternatively or if you use Windows XP Home Edition you can make this change in Folder Options. Go to Control Panel | Folder Options | View | “Do not cache thumbnails” disabling thumbnail caching will considerably slow down opening folders in thumbnail view. So, if you use thumbnail view a lot, think about it… 
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