There is a new Policy setting in Windows Vista which allows you disable the display of thumbnails on network folders in Windows Explorer. I don’t know if this speeds up the access of network folders, but thought I’d add this tip anyway.
In Windows Vista Business, Ultimate, and Enterprise editions, you can use the Group Policy Editor to configure this setting.
Disable Thumbnail display on Network folders
1. Click Start, type gpedit.msc and press ENTER
2. Go to the following branch:
3. Double-click the following option and set it to Enabled
4. Click OK.
If you enable this policy, Windows Explorer will only display icons and never display thumbnails on network folders.
Registry Fix
This setting can be configured using a Registry-based Policy. Download network-thumbs.zip. Unzip and extract the contents to a folder. Double-click the file disablenwthumb.reg to run it. Logoff and login back. To undo the setting, run the file enablenwthumb.reg.
The REG files adds data to the following branch:
Value Name : DisableThumbnailsOnNetworkFolders
Value Data : 1 or 0
Value Type : REG_DWORD
Related Posts
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- How to Clear the Thumbnail Cache in Windows 7 and Windows Vista
- Taskbar Displays Full Path of Open Folders Instead of the Actual Folder Name
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I am running windows 7 pro and windows xp on a server. I just did this and it fixed the problem on my systems. Thanks
@Maryanne: For other editions of Vista, use the REG file listed under section “Registry Fix”
What if you’re running one of the other Vista versions (home=premium) – how can you ENABLE thumbnail previews of networked files on those? No-one seems to know! I am a photographer and I HAVE to see thumbnails of the 1000′s of image files I’m accessing from every possible source on this new Vista laptop!!! HELP PLEASE!!!
Thanks for that, but what if you’re running one of the other Vista versions – how can you enable thumbnail previews of networked files on those? No-one seems to know!