{"id":75329,"date":"2024-05-31T12:34:50","date_gmt":"2024-05-31T07:04:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/198.58.113.91\/blog\/?p=75329"},"modified":"2024-06-01T15:35:37","modified_gmt":"2024-06-01T10:05:37","slug":"refresh-thumbnails-folder-shortcuts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/refresh-thumbnails-folder-shortcuts\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Refresh Thumbnails of Folder Shortcuts (.lnk)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>When you create a desktop shortcut to a folder, the folder shortcut thumbnail icon reflects what was in the folder it points to at creation. Later, when you add or remove files to the target folder, the folder thumbnails get updated dynamically, but the folder shortcut thumbnails remain the same. Even pressing F5 does not refresh the folder shortcut thumbs.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/folder-shortcut-thumbnail.png\" alt=\"folder shortcut thumbnails not refreshing\" width=\"462\" height=\"251\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-75346\" \/><\/p>\n<p>As you may have known, you can refresh the folder shortcut thumbnails by clearing and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/clear-thumbnail-cache-windows\/\">rebuilding the thumbnail cache<\/a>. But here&#8217;s a simpler script solution to refresh the folder shortcut thumbnails without rebuilding the thumbnails cache.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Let&#8217;s discuss the script below.<\/p>\n<h2>Refresh Thumbnails of Folder Shortcuts<\/h2>\n<ol>\n<li>Download the <a href=\"https:\/\/gist.github.com\/winhelponline\/f441778cfefb0e4a74768a3291b79f3e\/archive\/fb862f7bdb5c61c6e8f5f501d68589b52b05a157.zip\">RefreshShortcuts<\/a> script via <a href=\"https:\/\/gist.github.com\/winhelponline\/f441778cfefb0e4a74768a3291b79f3e\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">GitHub<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li>Unzip and extract it to a folder &#8212; e.g., <code>D:\\Scripts<\/code><\/li>\n<li>Run the script. It refreshes the thumbnails of folder shortcuts located on your desktop.<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/folder-shortcut-thumbnail-refresh.gif\" alt=\"folder shortcut thumbnails refresh using script\" width=\"661\" height=\"517\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-75333\" \/><\/p>\n<p>You can also run the script as a scheduled task or Startup item.<\/p>\n<div class=\"qt\">\n<h4>Additional Tip<\/h4>\n<p>You can also pass one or more folder paths as arguments. For example:<\/p>\n<pre>wscript.exe \"D:\\Scripts\\RefreshShortcuts.vbs\" \"D:\\Documents\"<\/pre>\n<p>The above command-line will refresh all .lnk files in your D:\\Documents folder.<\/p>\n<pre>wscript.exe \"D:\\Scripts\\RefreshShortcuts.vbs\" \"D:\\Documents\" \"D:\\Statements\"<\/pre>\n<p>The above command-line will refresh the thumbnails of all folder shortcut (.lnk) files located in your &#8220;D:\\Documents&#8221; and &#8220;D:\\Statements&#8221; folders.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Note:<\/strong> If you don&#8217;t pass any arguments and simply double-click the script or run <code>RefreshShortcuts.vbs<\/code>, it refreshes the folder shortcut thumbnails on the desktop.\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<hr>\n<h3>Script code<\/h3>\n<p><script src=\"https:\/\/gist.github.com\/winhelponline\/f441778cfefb0e4a74768a3291b79f3e.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>If you can&#8217;t see the script&#8217;s contents above, visit the following GitHub link to view and download the script.<\/p>\n<p>Refresh thumbnails of folder shortcuts (.lnk):<br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/gist.github.com\/winhelponline\/f441778cfefb0e4a74768a3291b79f3e\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">https:\/\/gist.github.com\/winhelponline\/f441778cfefb0e4a74768a3291b79f3e<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When you create a desktop shortcut to a folder, the folder shortcut thumbnail icon reflects what was in the folder it points to at creation. Later, when you add or remove files to the target folder, the folder thumbnails get updated dynamically, but the folder shortcut thumbnails remain the same. Even pressing F5 does not &#8230; <a title=\"How to Refresh Thumbnails of Folder Shortcuts (.lnk)\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/refresh-thumbnails-folder-shortcuts\/\" aria-label=\"Read more about How to Refresh Thumbnails of Folder Shortcuts (.lnk)\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,869],"tags":[480,763],"class_list":["post-75329","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-windows-10","category-windows-11","tag-scripts","tag-vbscript"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":3314,"url":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/folder-thumbnails-white-border-windows-10\/","url_meta":{"origin":75329,"position":0},"title":"[Fix] Folder Thumbnails Appear With White Border in Windows 10","author":"Ramesh","date":"June 21, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"When you set a folder picture via the Customize tab in folder properties or by editing the Desktop.ini file manually, the folder thumbnail may show up with white border in Windows 10, as in the image below.Folder thumbnail behavior in Windows 10.When the same folder picture is used in Windows\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Windows 10&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Windows 10","link":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/category\/microsoft\/windows\/windows-10\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"folder thumbnails with white border","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/thumb-white-border-1.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":9730,"url":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/disable-folder-thumbnails-without-disabling-thumbnail-preview-for-files\/","url_meta":{"origin":75329,"position":1},"title":"Disable Folder Thumbnails without Disabling Thumbnail Preview for Files","author":"Ramesh","date":"June 10, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"When a folder contains one or more images in it, the contents of the folder are shown as the thumbnail image for that folder. Windows allows you to enable or disable thumbnail previews in File Explorer using the Always show icons, never thumbnails setting in the Folder Options dialog. When\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Windows&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Windows","link":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/category\/microsoft\/windows\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"disable folder content thumbnails","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/folder-content-previews-disable-before.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/folder-content-previews-disable-before.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/folder-content-previews-disable-before.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/folder-content-previews-disable-before.png?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":182,"url":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/fix-thumbnail-preview-for-pictures-w7-vista\/","url_meta":{"origin":75329,"position":2},"title":"Fix: Thumbnails Not Showing up in File Explorer","author":"Ramesh","date":"April 14, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Are your image files showing up with a generic mountain and lake scene instead of the miniature or thumbnail display in File Explorer? And video files may show up with a generic icon\/thumbnail. This article tells you how to enable thumbnails in File Explorer on Windows 10\/11 and earlier. RELATED:\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Windows&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Windows","link":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/category\/microsoft\/windows\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"thumbnails blank -- fix the IconServiceLib registry setting","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/04\/iconservicelib-registry-thumbnail-fix.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/04\/iconservicelib-registry-thumbnail-fix.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/04\/iconservicelib-registry-thumbnail-fix.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/04\/iconservicelib-registry-thumbnail-fix.png?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1015,"url":"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/clear-thumbnail-cache-windows\/","url_meta":{"origin":75329,"position":3},"title":"How to Clear the Thumbnail Cache in Windows 10 or 11","author":"Ramesh","date":"August 11, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"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. 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