# Icons Showing Up Instead of Thumbnails

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/icons-showing-up-instead-of-thumbnails/628383>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [July 16, 2012, 4:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/icons-showing-up-instead-of-thumbnails/628383 "2012-07-16T04:07:10Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/f04885/32.png) [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qin_Shi_Huangdi)\
**Post date:** [July 16, 2012, 4:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/icons-showing-up-instead-of-thumbnails/628383/1 "2012-07-16T04:07:10Z")

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For some reason yesterday, my computer started showing icons instead of thumbnails of photos and this still happens (I have an XP BTW) even though the “Show icons not thumbnails” option was unchecked in the Folder and Search Options which was the usual solution given after googling.

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**Author:** ![Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/f04885/32.png) [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qin_Shi_Huangdi)\
**Post date:** [July 16, 2012, 4:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/icons-showing-up-instead-of-thumbnails/628383/2 "2012-07-16T04:26:26Z")

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Its Vista BTW not XP. :smack:

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**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\
**Post date:** [July 19, 2012, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/icons-showing-up-instead-of-thumbnails/628383/3 "2012-07-19T03:17:46Z")

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Try resetting the folder options. Organize -\> Folder and Search Options \> View \> Reset Folder.

If that doesn’t work, you may need to [reset your Thumbnail cache.](http://support.microsoft.com/kb/928572)

If that doesn’t work, I’d be getting to the point where I suspect malware, or at least badly written software. Had you installed anything recently before this problem started? Try uninstalling it. And definitely run a Malware scan or two.

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**Author:** ![Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/f04885/32.png) [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qin_Shi_Huangdi)\
**Post date:** [July 19, 2012, 3:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/icons-showing-up-instead-of-thumbnails/628383/4 "2012-07-19T03:52:17Z")

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Thank you for the advice. It turned out the problem was caused by practically no space in the hard drive.