Windows 10: Windows 10 Photos app generates thumbnails in...

Hello,


it is well known that thumbnail generation in Windows Explorer can be turned off by enabling:

"always show icons, never thumbnails".


This way no thumbnails will be stored in files like:

%LocalAppData%\Microsoft\Windows\Explorer\thumbcache_*.db


However, it seems that the Photos app in Windows 10 uses the same thumbcache_*.db files

to store its own thumbnails. And it does not even care about the Explorer setting above,

so it even generates thumbnails when the above setting is enabled!


This is a huge privacy issue as nobody expects that a Universal Windows Platforms (UWP) app like

the Photos app generates thumbnails in a legacy Explorer folder (rather than using a folder in

C:\Users\SomeUser\AppData\Local\Packages\* as for example the Contacts app does).


IMHO Microsoft should at least make this behavior visible and allow to turn thumbnail

generation off in the Photos app settings.


Best regards

:)

 

Photos App - No Thumbnails


On my neighbour's machine (that I did a clean install on) when they load pictures from their camera, and the Photo app launches, all the photos/pictures shown in the Photo app are blank - i.e. the thumbnails are not showing. On this machine thumbnails are set to show and if you look at, for example, the Pictures folders all pictures are shown as thumbnails (via explorer). The set up of this machine is the same as mine and on my pc the Photo app icons do show as thumbnails. I have been trying to turn my Photo app thumbnail preview on and off but do not know how to do it. My logic being of I can turn thumbnails on and off in the Photo app I could get to the route of my neighbour's problem.

 

Photo thumbnail picture


If you do the suggestion by Cyberdesigner and they still show as icons, check your performance settings and make sure "show thumbnails instead of icons" is checked.


Right click Start, select System -> Advanced system settings -> Advanced tab -> Performance - Settings

 

Displaying Thumbnails for .jpg files in Windows 10 File Explorer

Thanks for your suggestion.

As "recommended for Windows 10", "Photos" is the default app for "Photo viewer" (.jpg isn't really listed as the file extension in the settings).

Do you have another app you would suggest?

By the way, my photos open and display just fine, the issue is the general absence of thumbnails in File Explorer.