How can I suppress those annoying Thumbs.db files in Windows Vista and Windows 7?

"Using Group Policies

So, with more specific googling, I've discovered how to do it from a post here, for editions of Vista and Windows 7 that come with Group Policy Editor. (Unfortunately, GPE doesn't come with Windows 7 Starter, Home Basic, or Home Premium. A solution for these operating systems can be found in the second part of this answer.)

Here are my own detailed instructions, written against Windows 7 but likely the same for Vista:

Run gpedit.msc directly using the Start menu. (You may also be able to find an Edit group policy control panel searching by name, but I couldn't find its icon listed anywhere under ""All Control Panel Items"". Go figure!)
In the left-hand pane, expand User Configuration, then Administrative Templates, then Windows Components.
Under Windows Components what was just expanded, select Windows Explorer.
In the right-hand pane, sort by Setting, then scroll down and find the setting named ""Turn off the caching of thumbnails in hidden thumbs.db files"". Double-click it, set it to Enabled, and then click Apply.
Log off Windows, and then log back on again.

Within Windows Explorer, you should now be able to delete the Thumbs.db files that you come across on the network (as long as another machine isn't currently locking the file), and the computer shouldn't create them again.

Also worth knowing: In Vista and Windows 7, Thumbs.db applies to network folders only. For local folders, Vista and Windows 7 instead save thumbnail cache information to a database in a local folder at %userprofile%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Explorer

Using the registry

The registry equivalent for disabling Thumbs.db creation on network shares in Windows Vista and Windows 7 is:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Explorer]
""DisableThumbsDBOnNetworkFolders""=dword:00000001

If you place that content in its own text file (e.g. with Notepad) with a .reg extension, you can double-click to import on any Windows Vista or Windows 7 machine to apply the setting. Be careful editing your registry directly."

"There's a registry key you can change to turn off thumbnail caching.

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced\DisableThumbnailCache

Set it to 1 to disable caching.

Details here."

"In Windows 7 Explorer (the standard ""files and folders"" viewer):

Organize -> ""Folder and search options"" -> View -> ""Always show icons, never thumbnails""

I don't know precisely how broadly this is applied, but it seems to have done the trick for me."

"Steps to remove thumbs.db on windows > 8:


Open Windows Explorer.
(Ctrl + F1) to open commands pane.
Select/click Thumbs.db file
On commands pane, click “Properties” dropdown.
Select “Remove Properties”
On “Remove Properties” dialog pane, select “Remove the following roperties from this file:” radio button.
Click “OK” button.
On commands pane, click “Delete”.
On “Delete File” dialog pane, Click “Yes” button.


Source"

"Following the guide found on this Microsoft page we can learn about the command attrib

If I have a folder with pictures and I don't want to see the file Thumbs.db, you can open CMDwith admin rights, and then to change to the folder path just do cd, example:

cd C:\Users\""YourUserName""\Pictures\""NameOfTheFolder""

To hide all Thumbs.db files on that directory and any other subfolder do:

attrib +s +h *Thumbs.db /s"