Disable thumbnails in Windows XP?

Background
I regularly use Windows Explorer to browse my drives and data, and I notice little freezes and hiccups at times. It's especially noticeable when browsing local or network folders with lots of video files (AVI, MKV, MPG, etc).

I almost always browse in the Details view, and the "Do not cache thumbnails" option is turned on. Even though I'm in Details mode, I'm convinced the sluggishness is due to Windows trying to generate thumbnails for the video files, so I want to disable thumbnail generation for these files.

I occasionally use Thumbnails view for browsing image files, so I don't want to disable all thumbnails. But for future reference, this might be good to know.

Questions

How do I disable thumbnail generation for all non-image files?
How do I disable thumbnail generation for all files?
How do I disable thumbnail generation for one specific filetype?

Finally, how do I undo (re-enable thumbnails) once I've performed one of the above?

Solution 1:

1. Disabling thumbnails for all video types

Disable: regsvr32 /u shmedia.dll
Enable: regsvr32 shmedia.dll

(source 1, source 2)

2. Disabling thumbnails for all image types

Disable: regsvr32.exe /u shimgvw.dll
Enable: regsvr32.exe shimgvw.dll

Alternately, you can disable them in RegEdit by clearing (ie, setting the value to blank, empty space) the "(Default)" value on the following key:

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\SystemFileAssociations\image\ShellEx\ContextMenuHandlers\ShellImagePreview

For easy restoration, backup (export) the key first, then merge your backup into the registry; or set the value back to its default of "{e84fda7c-1d6a-45f6-b725-cb260c236066}".

(source)

3a. Disabling thumbnails for individual video types

The K-Lite Codec Tweak Tool will conveniently accomplish this. It works by backing up and deleting the following registry key (where .xxx is a file extension):

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.xxx\ShellEx\{BB2E617C-0920-11d1-9A0B-00C04FC2D6C1}

Manually removing this key with RegEdit also works; again, export the key first to be able to restore it.

3b. Disabling thumbnails for individual image types

I've tried (in a virtual machine!) deleting all registry keys featuring the string "jpg", to no avail. I don't think it's feasible, short of hex-editing some system DLL.

Solution 2:

The Do not cache thumbnails option stops Windows from generating a thumbnail cache (a hidden file in each folder containing the thumbnails - named thumbs.db). This forces Windows to generate the thumbnails each time it needs them. If you are willing to put up with the hidden file then unchecking the option will let Windows use the cached values which should speed things up.

Solution 3:

This should help you:

Open Control Panel. (Classic View)

Click on the System icon.

Click on the advanced system settings link.

Under Performance, click on the Settings button.

In the Visual Effects tab, uncheck "Show thumbnails instead of icons."

As for disabling thumbnails for a particular image type, you will need to disable the thumbnail preview engine listed in the registry. This is not easy, I would just leave it as "on" or "off".