Icons instead of thumbnails

[Louis F. Dow]

My computer used to show thumbnails and then it suddenly changed to show icons instead of thumbnails. I went to Control Panel/System/advanced/settings and checked “Show thumbnails instead of icons” and restarted but nothing changed. How can I get back my thumbnails?

 

[davehc]

Try it through the windows explorer. Click view and, on the far right, options, then, change folder and search options.
In the new window, click "view" tab and adjust it from there:

 

[Louis F. Dow]

Try it through the windows explorer. Click view and, on the far right, options, then, change folder and search options.
In the new window, click "view" tab and adjust it from there:
View attachment 11727

Thanks, but I've already tried that (I should have indicated that in my original post). The next option that might affect this is the: "Display file icon on thumbnails." I've tried both checked and unchecked and neither makes a difference.

I really appreciate the reply, perhaps you have another idea . . .

 

[davehc]

Maybe your cache neds refreshing:

1. Open Start.
2. Search for Command Prompt.
3. Right-click the result and select Run as administrator.
4. Type the following command to stop File Explorer and press Enter:
   taskkill /f /im explorer.exe
5. Type the following command to delete all the thumbnail database files without asking for confirmation and press Enter:
   del /f /s /q /a %LocalAppData%\Microsoft\Windows\Explorer\thumbcache_*.db
6. Type the following command to start File Explorer and press Enter:
   start explorer.exe
7. Close Command Prompt to complete the task.

Another thing you could try, if the above doesn't work, is to go back into the windows explorer and under the "View" tab, select the option, bottom right to restore the settings back to the defaults.

 

[Bastet]

Try this:

https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/5655-clear-reset-thumbnail-cache-windows-10-a.html

 

[Louis F. Dow]

Neither of these solutions worked. This is a very serious problem. All of the photo files on my computer are essentially useless. I have about 5,000 pics saved on one file and the only way I can see what they are is by loading them onto a thumb drive, where the thumbs do show, or by opening each one individually which is obviously a ridiculous solution. I know the problem can be fixed because I took my Surface to a Microsoft store several months ago and the woman there fixed it, except the fix didn't last. I can't do that now because everything is closed. If no one has the solution, how do I find out what it is?