Issue
Cannot delete certain folders from a network share from Windows 10 Pro desktop. The folders cannot be deleted because they contain hidden Thumbs.db files which are locked by Windows Explorer (these files are used to speed up the display of image thumbnails in Windows Explorer icon view). Following error message pops up when trying to delete affected folders.
File In Use
The action can't be completed because the file is open in Windows Explorer
Close the file and try again.
Thumbs.db
Type: Data Base File
Resolution
The issue can be temporarily resolved by restarting explorer.exe process, or just waiting until the lock on Thumbs.db file is eventually released. A more permanent solution is preventing Windows Explorer from creating and using Thumbs.db files on network shares. This can be done in the following way:
- Open Local Group Policy Editor (gpedit.msc)
- Navigate to User Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > File Explorer
- Enable Policy called: "Turn off the caching of thumbnails in hidden thumbs.db files"
- Restart explorer.exe process.
November 2020
Windows 10 Pro
Synology DiskStation NAS
Does this need to be done directly on each machine that contains the shared drives, or can it be done on my system and solve the issue on the multiple shared machines throughout our network.
I believe this will need to be done on each PC accessing the share (as Thumbs.db are created by the client PCs).
Joaquim Domingues:
"There is no gpedit.exe only gpedit.msc ..."
Thanks, that's fixed.
Microsoft renamed Windows Explorer to File Explorer at some point, but gpedit.exe was my mistake...
There is no gpedit.exe only gpedit.msc ...
There is no 'User Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Windows Explorer' ...
Only 'User Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > File Explorer' ...