This file appears often in your PC: it quarrels why it serves

In the course of time and the use of our team based on Windows, on the different disk drives of the computer we are accumulating multitude of proper files. To all this, we must add him those that correspond to the proper operating system or to the applications that we have installed. Now we will speak to you about the file called Thumbs.db, let's see of what it is a question.

When we prepare to liberate space this way to use the disk drives in other tasks, we must take very care of what we eliminate. It is possible to give the case of that we erase some folder or file corresponding to certain programs or to the same Windows, and damage this software. This one can turn into a serious disadvantage that might damage the content of our team and therefore its functioning.

It is for it therefore in most of the occasions it is preferable to do a cleanliness, be already erasing or changing unit, our own files. Since you will be able to imagine here they have a special transcendency all those files related to the images and the videos that we have been accumulating. Generally all these multimedia contents occupy a large number of space on the hard disks. If we do not want to get rid of all this in a definitive way, a big solution is to keep good part of these contents, which less we usually use, in external storage units.

But here we want to center on a quite habitual file in the folders of photos that with the time we have been creating. And the fact is that, sure that it proves to many of you more than relative, or at least you it have seen several times, the file called Thumbs.db.

What is Thumbs.db and why do I see it so much in Windows

Moreover, those that normally you treat with a fair amount of images of photographic files in the PC with Windows, insurance that you are accustomed to meet these files. It is for all this therefore next we are going to speak to you about what this file is in fact and what we can do with the same one. Well, the first thing that we must know come to this point is that the file Thumbs.db is a file that creates automatically the system Windows for its internal use.

In fact, this is the one that contains the corresponding miniatures of the images that we have kept with the time in a folder. Hence we are it in several disc places as we move for the same one. So that you do an idea of its utility to yourselves, this file is used in order to accelerate the load of these miniatures on having opened the folder in question. That means that when we gain access to the same one for example from the Explorer of files of Windows, the load of all the miniatures of the photos here kept will be much more rapid.

In summed up accounts, this means that beforehand we should not erase this file that the operating system generates automatically. This is something that becomes especially clear if we gain access in a habitual way to this folder that contains a fair amount of photographic files. This way we will be able to visualize on screen its miniatures of a much more fluid way, even sometimes instantaneous, quite thanks to Thumbs.db.

Error of functioning of the file of the system

Come to this point it is necessary to mention that in case we erase it, already it is deliberately or for accident, in fact nothing will happen. Nevertheless, as we mention you, if we open very much and use this folder with photos, it is better to leave the file where it is. Of equal way we must have in consideration that here the operating system of Microsoft commits a use error. The same one bases that this file about which we speak to you now also contains the miniatures of images that resigned already in the past.

This means that the file about which we speak to you, Thumbs.db, contains all the miniatures of the images that have kept in this folder. Even if we erase the same ones in the past, the already nonexistent corresponding miniature to those contained, they remain kept in this file of the system. This might be considered to be a serious mistake of safety that Windows presents to us with regard to the contents of images that have happened for our hard disks. The main reason of all this is quite clear. In case in its moment we had photographic files kept in this folder somewhat sensitive or personal, its miniature would remain kept in this file about which we speak to you now.

This means that anyone who has access to it and is able to open it will be able to see a smaller version of those personal photos that we would not want to show anyone. The reason for this is that the corresponding entries are registered, even if we have removed them from the computer. This is why we are going to talk about how you can take a look at the contents of this file.

How to open thumbnail file Thumbs.db

In the case we have mentioned, we may be interested in taking a look at the contents of that file to see if there are thumbnails that we do not wish to be there. In addition, if we have problems viewing these contents that we comment on, we can also delete all these files that Windows has created in one go to make sure.

using the File Magic program

First, we will talk about a useful program that focuses on giving us all the facilities to view the content of most file formats. Specifically, this is software called File Magic. It should be noted that this is a valid program for most of the file formats that we use today. Therefore, this is made extensible to Thumbs.db. Anyway, it is worth knowing that this software will not always work nor will it be 100% effective when opening these photo thumbnail files.

It is interesting to know that thanks to the user interface proposed to us, it can be used even by those users not too experienced in these tasks.

Open Thumbs.db with a Linux distro

If we do not end up satisfied with the results obtained with the program we have mentioned before, we can also make use of any Linux distribution. And it is that in the open source operating system we have the possibility to install and run a program that will be of great help to us to view the contents of Thumbs.db. To give you a more approximate idea, say that the commented software what it does is decompress those thumbnails saved in the file to see them on the screen. This will be an excellent opportunity to take a first-hand look if that file contains thumbnails of remnants of images that we already delete and do not wish to continue there.

The Linux application we refer to here has the name Vinetto. For example, in all Debian-based distros, once we have opened the system terminal, we will use the following command:

With this what we achieved is to install the program as such in the operating system. Then we just need to place ourselves in the folder where we saved the Thumbs.db file that we originally extracted from our Windows computer and saved here. Once in that folder, we will have to use the following command:

In that instant the thumbnails will be extracted from the specified Thumbs.db file will already appear on screen so we can take a look at them first hand.

Removes all Thumbs.db files from a pen

Likewise, we may not want to take security and privacy risks with these thumbnails of the photos. If we have multiple folders that contain and have contained photographic files of all kinds and we do not want them to remain there, we have an easy solution.

For all this we have to download and install the program called Thumbnail Database Cleaner. This is automatically responsible for deleting all the files we have been talking about in these lines after scanning the drives of the Windows PC.

Share :