{"id":1015,"date":"2007-08-11T19:06:59","date_gmt":"2007-08-11T13:36:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/198.58.113.91\/blog\/?p=1015"},"modified":"2022-07-13T23:03:22","modified_gmt":"2022-07-13T17:33:22","slug":"clear-thumbnail-cache-windows","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/clear-thumbnail-cache-windows\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Clear the Thumbnail Cache in Windows 10 or 11"},"content":{"rendered":"

Windows keeps a copy of all of your picture, video, and document thumbnails in a cache database so they can be displayed quickly when you open a folder. Sometimes due to thumbnail cache corruption, thumbnail previews<\/a> may not work for some files, for a particular icon size or for all icons sizes.<\/p>\n

\"Clear<\/p>\n

In some cases, the thumbnail for some items will appear in grayscale although the original image is a color image. Sometimes, the thumbnail quality is mediocre that you can barely recognize the item by looking at it.<\/p>\n

\"Clear<\/p>\n

Thumbnail preview problems can be resolved by clearing the thumbnail databases and let the system rebuild it as required. To reset the thumbnail cache in Windows Vista, 7, 8 and Windows 10, use one of the methods in this article.<\/p>\n

How to Clear the Thumbnail Cache in Windows<\/h2>\n

The thumbnail cache can be cleared using many methods. The native option is Disk Cleanup. The second option is using ClearIconCache third-party tool to delete icon & thumbnail cache. Or, you can clear them manually as explained in method 3.<\/p>\n

<\/a>Method 1: Clear the Thumbnail Cache using Disk Cleanup<\/h3>\n
    \n
  1. Click Start, type Disk Cleanup, click Disk Cleanup. Or, run cleanmgr.exe<\/strong><\/code>.<\/li>\n
  2. Select the Operating System drive letter (usually C:\\<\/code>) from the drop-down, and click OK.
    \n\"cleanmgr<\/li>\n
  3. Uncheck all the entries except Thumbnails<\/b>
    \n\"cleanmgr<\/li>\n
  4. Click OK<\/b>, and click Delete Files<\/b> to confirm.
    \n<\/b>\"cleanmgr<\/li>\n
  5. After the cleanup is complete, log off and login back for the change to take effect.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Note:<\/strong>\u00a0Windows 10\/11 deletes the thumbnail cache<\/a> using Task Scheduler every once in a while. If you don’t want Windows to auto-clear the thumbnail cache for you, you can disable the task<\/a> and do it manually only when needed.<\/em><\/p>\n

    \n

    <\/a>Method 2: Clear Thumbnail cache using ClearIconCache<\/h3>\n

    Clear Icon Cache (ClearIconCache.exe) utility from Leo Davidson<\/a> will cleanly exit Explorer<\/a>, delete the shell icon cache (IconCache*.db) and localized thumbnail cache<\/strong> (ThumbCache*.db) and then restart Explorer.<\/p>\n

    Leo Davidson is a trusted source — he is the one who wrote the famous PDF x64 thumbnail & preview fix for Windows a few years back. And, he’s the owner of FileTypeDiag<\/a> and many other useful portable tools.<\/em><\/p>\n

    With Clear Icon Cache, you just double-click the program and it takes care of the details for you. Clear Icon Cache works in Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 10, and Windows 11.<\/p>\n

    \"clear<\/p>\n