# Windows XP Folder Question **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 16, 2013, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-xp-folder-question/650536 "2013-02-16T21:05:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![ducati](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/cc9497/32.png) [@ducati](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ducati)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2013, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-xp-folder-question/650536/1 "2013-02-16T21:05:58Z")
Yeah, my main machine is a few years old, but it’s not ready for the scrapyard just yet. However, I can’t seem to solve this problem, or even find anyone else with a similar issue. Like anyone else, I store my digital pictures in folders for access when needed. I usually gather about 4 gigs or so in a folder, then burn a DVD as an added back up for family pix. When I open a folder, the thumbnails will display normally, though they can be slow to “paint” sometimes if I scroll down a few pages. The thumbs will catch up and be displayed, but it takes a few moments sometimes. Cleaning up and de-fragging can speed this process a little. However, I have one folder that has stopped “painting” all the thumbnails when opened. There are about 3,200 pictures in the folder, totaling about 885mb. The first few pages will show thumbnails normally, but past a certain file, only the little Windows placeholder icon. These are a mixture of funny pictures from the web and some I’ve taken, and some I’ve scanned. The file names are all over the map, but the break comes in the a section of files named “Picture ####”. These are all Jpegs, but there are a couple of bitmaps in the folder somewhere. Clicking any individual icon will still display the picture in Windows Picture and Fax Viewer normally, but it bugs me that all the thumbs won’t display properly. It wasn’t always this way, but it is now. How can I force Windows to do my bidding and display all the thumbnails in a given folder? XP Media Center Edition Service Pack 3 Intel Core 2, 1.83Ghz 2 GB RAM 180GB HD, 34GB free ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2013, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-xp-folder-question/650536/2 "2013-02-16T21:08:44Z")
Sounds like a corrupted thumbnails cache. Step-by-step fix for that [here](http://pcsupport.about.com/od/fixtheproblem/ht/repairthumbsdb.htm), though the symptoms are different in that example. ---
**Author:** ![ducati](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/cc9497/32.png) [@ducati](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ducati)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2013, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-xp-folder-question/650536/3 "2013-02-16T21:51:34Z")
Thanks, but no dice. Anyone else? ---
**Author:** ![AaronX](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/7bcc69/32.png) [@AaronX](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AaronX)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2013, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-xp-folder-question/650536/4 "2013-02-17T15:18:57Z")
Do they show thumbnails if you move them to other folders? You could try right click on the folder and change the type to for pictures. If they display in other folders, you could try copying all the pictures to a new folder and deleting the old one. ---
**Author:** ![Turble](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8dc957/32.png) [@Turble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Turble)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2013, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-xp-folder-question/650536/5 "2013-02-17T17:37:43Z")
What **KneadToKnow** said. You might try copy/paste to make a duplicate of the entire folder to try it on – but yeah, corrupted thumbnail database – XP will rebuild it.