I tried what you said and the hidden box was not checked. I checked the hidden box just to see what would happen and it just made it worse. Any more suggestions? Mike
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Browse All TopicsWhen I open up my folders I have my view set on thumbnails. When I open the folder that has all of my different folders with pictures in them the pictures on the folders have a gray shadow over them and it is real hard to see the picture on the folder. I'm not sure what I've done but I use to beable to see the folder pictures just fine. Any suggestions? Mike
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I had a client with the same problem. The fix turned out to be a corrupted thumbs.db file. Deleting it in the My Pictures folder, and all sub-folders fixed the problem.
I am not certain what caused the thumbs.db file to become corrupted everywhere, but the following will fix the problem.
You'll need to be logged in at the system Administrator level. Most likely, your usual login is this level.
First, you need to be able to see the thumbs.db file. This is a hidden system file so you'll need to enable the ability to see these files.
1. Go into the folder in which the thumbnails are having problems.
2. Pull down the "View" menu and select "Details". This is to prevent the system from trying to recreate thumbnails while you are deleting the cache file.
3. Pull down the "Tools" menu. Select "Folder Options".
4. Click the "View" folder tab.
5. Click the "Show hidden files and folders" radio button.
6. De-check the "Hide protected operating system files" check box. Windows will issue a warning. Click the "Yes" box.
7. Click the "OK" button at the bottom of the window. This will close the window and apply the changes to this folder only. If you have a lot of folders that have this problem, it might be more expedient to click the "Apply to all folders" button at the top of this window, however be advised that ALL folders on your computer will now be set to these view options. If you have a lot of highly customized folder views you will be wiping them all out.
8. Back at the folder, (which should still be in "Details" view), locate the Thumbs.db file. It is slightly grayed because this is a hidden system file.
9. Delete this file.
10. Go to the "View" menu and select "Thumbnails"
You should now see your thumbnails properly.
Please let me know if this works. If not there are a couple of other things to try but I think this will probably solve the problem.
Hi Keith!
The questioner has accepted a comment I left suggesting that they check screen resolution and/or bit-rate. That's not to say that this solved their problem (and since they've not yet replied (save & except for accepting the comment), we may or may not ever know.
All the same, you make some pretty good suggestions, and I'll be sure to addd these to my own knowledgebase.
See you in the Qs!
Ted, in Aurora-Ontario-Canada
Business Accounts
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by: lcrachaPosted on 2003-01-03 at 10:30:07ID: 7663839
I'm not sure, but I believe that indicates that they are "hidden" folders. Right click on any one of them and select properties. You should see the "hidden" box checkmarked.