What Are the thumbs.db, desktop.ini, and .DS_Store Files? | Dramel Notes

Tell your file manager to show hidden files and you’ll see quite a few junk files scattered across your folders. Windows creates thumbs.db and desktop.ini files in many folders, and Mac OS X creates .DS_Store files.

Most people won’t normally see these files. They’re normally considered hidden files and only appear if you go out of your way to show hidden files. The system creates these files to speed things up and save settings for the future, but you can prevent some of them from being created.

What is thumbs.db?

A thumbs.db file is essentially a “thumbnail database” — that’s what the name implies. Whenever you open a folder in Windows Explorer or File Explorer and that folder contains images, Windows will create thumbnails of those images. To speed things up in the future, Windows will save those thumbnail images into a “thumbs.db” file it creates in that specific folder. Windows can then reload those thumbnail images rather than generating them again the next time you open a folder.

This is normally fine, and you won’t normally even notice them because they’re hidden files. However, they can cause issues in some situations. If you upload directories to a web server, for example, the thumbs.db files may tag along.

To prevent Windows from creating thumbs.db files — most people won’t need to do this, but you can if you want — you can either use the Group Policy Editor (on a Professional or Enterprise version of Windows) or the Registry Editor (on a Home edition of Windows.)

To change this setting in Group Policy, press Windows Key + R to open the Run dialog, type “gpedit.msc” into the dialog, and press Enter.

Navigate to User Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > File Explorer on Windows 10, 8.1, or 8. On Windows 7, navigate to User Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Windows Explorer instead.

Double-click the “Turn off the caching of thumbnails in hidden thumbs.db files” option and set it to “Enabled”.

On Home editions of Windows, open the Registry Editor by pressing Windows Key + R, typing “regedit”, and pressing Enter.

Navigate to “HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersion ExplorerAdvanced”. Double-click the “DisableThumbnailCache” setting in the right pane and set it to “1”. If you don’t see the “DisableThumbnailCache” option, right-click in the right pane, create a new DWORD value, and name it “DisableThumbnailCache”. Then, change its value to 1.

Delete the value or set it to “0” to undo this change.

What is desktop.ini?

Windows also creates desktop.ini files, but these are extra-hidden. Not only are they hidden files, but they’re also considered protected operating system files. You won’t be able to see them unless you disable the “Hide Protected Operating System Files (Recommended)” setting in File Explorer or Windows Explorer. This setting is located in the Folder Options window.

Windows uses these desktop.ini files to identify the way a folder should be displayed. For example, when you try to move some folders in Windows, Windows will inform you that the folder is a system folder and you shouldn’t move it. Some folders also have their own unique icons. This sort of information is stored in the desktop.ini file in a folder.

We’re not aware of any way to prevent Windows from creating these files. You should just tell Windows not to display protected operating system files if you don’t want to see them.

What is .DS_Store?

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Mac OS X creates .DS_Store files. These files are created in each folder and work similarly to the desktop.ini files on Windows. These files start with a period — a “.” character — and thus are hidden by default on Mac OS X and other Unix operating systems. You won’t see these files on a Mac unless you go out of your way to view hidden files. They won’t normally appear in the Finder or other utilities.

The .DS_Store file contains information about the position of icons in a folder, the folder’s background image, and other details. When you open a folder in the Finder, the Finder reads this file to see how to display the contents of the folder. When you change these settings, the Finder stores those settings in the .DS_Store file.

Macs will normally create these .DS_Store files even on shared network folders, and this could be a problem. For example, those .DS_Store files would just be additional clutter that would confuse Windows users.

To prevent this from happening, Mac OS X offers a way to prevent these .DS_Store files from being created — but only on network drives. To do this, open a Terminal window (press Command+Space, type “Terminal”, and press Enter or navigate to Applications > Utilities > Terminal). Type the following command into the terminal window and press Enter:

defaults write com.apple.desktopservices DSDontWriteNetworkStores true

To undo your change and have Mac OS X continue creating .DS_Store files on network drives, run the following command:

defaults write com.apple.desktopservices DSDontWriteNetworkStores false

There’s no way to prevent Mac OS X from creating .DS_Store files locally without third-party hacks. However, leave hidden files disabled in the Finder and you won’t see and be bothered by them.

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These files can get in the way when using some programs — for example, version-control programs or file-uploading tools. Ideally, the programs you use should automatically ignore thumbs.db, desktop.ini, and .DS_Store files. If they’re getting in the way in a particular program, see if you can have that program ignore them entirely.

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How to Really Hide Folders Full of Questionable Content | Dramel Notes

Do you share you computer with other people in your home? Are you worried they might jump in and start exploring folders they shouldn’t? We’re not here to judge what you have in those folders, but we are here to offer you a quick and easy way to make it so no will bother to click on them.

First, you’ll want to change the name of the folder to something that looks like a Windows system file. In the image above I went with “OX Setup”, but you can name it anything you want.

Next, you’ll need to change the icon of the folder so no one will know it’s a folder in the first place. To do this, right-click on the folder, then click Properties. Click the far-right tab labeled Customize, then click Change Icon on the bottom of that screen.

From there, you can choose from tons of different icons for your folder. Pick one that looks like a system file that no one would want to click, and click Apply.

Now, when someone sees the folder, it will look like any other system file that they’d have no reason to click. For you, double-clicking on it opens it like any other folder. Just make sure you remember where you stored it!

How do you hide folders on your computer? Any cool tips? Share with us in the comments!

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How to Share Files and Folders from OneDrive in Windows 10 | Dramel Notes

With OneDrive, it’s easy to share files and folders securely and easily with other people. They won’t need to install any special applications or sign up for a new account. In fact, they can use any web browser to get to the files you share with them. And you have a complete control in your hand—your files will only be shared with the people you choose. In this article, we’ll show you how to share files and folders from your OneDrive, and different permissions you might want to know about before sharing.

Share a File or Folder from the Desktop

In Windows 8.1, OneDrive was integrated into the operating system through an app that you couldn’t uninstall, and settings were easily accessible from PC settings. Through the modern app, users were able to upload their files and folders easily, and even share them without having to use the web interface of OneDrive all the time. OneDrive for Windows 10 brings better integration with the File Explorer. You’re just a click away to share a link of file or folder.

Sharing a file as a link has many advantages, particularly when sending them through email. Email can be rejected by servers when attachments are too large, and even if a large email makes it to your recipient, the recipient might not be happy for having big attachment in their mailbox. OneDrive makes it easy to share a link to a file that can be sent by email, Facebook, or as a text message.

Open OneDrive in File Explorer and locate the file or folder you want to share. Right-click the file or folder to reveal the context menu and select “Share a OneDrive Link”.

After a few seconds a notification will appear letting you know that a link has been prepared.

Open Mail client and enter the email address of the recipient of the file. Right-click and choose “Paste” in the body of the email message to paste the shared OneDrive Link. Upon receipt of the message, the recipient simply has to click the link to have access to your shared file.

Even though this link grants access to only the document or folder it was generated for, there is nothing to identify who used the link, and it could be shared with anyone. If you want a greater control, you might want to share from the web interface, which will allow you to share with specific email addresses and grant limited access to the file.

Share a File or Folder from OneDrive.com

Open OneDrive in File Explorer and locate the file or folder you want to share. Right-click the file or folder to reveal the context menu and select “More OneDrive sharing options”.

Once you click this option, your default web browser will open OneDrive to the sharing options of the particular shared folder. Then choose any one from the following share options.

Invite People

Choose this option if you want to give specific individuals or group permissions to an item. This lets you remove permission for specific individuals or groups later if you need to. In the “To” box, enter email addresses or contact names from the list. Add a note to recipients if you want. To change the permission level, tap or click “Recipients can only view” or “Recipients can edit”.

• If you choose “Recipients can only view”, then recipients you invite can view, download or copy the files you share.
• If you choose “Recipients can edit”, then recipients can use Office Online to edit office documents without signing in. To make other changes (like adding or deleting files in a folder), recipients need to sign in with a Microsoft account.
• If you pick “Recipients can edit” and a recipient forwards the message, anyone who receives it will also be able to edit the item you’re sharing. People with edit permissions can also invite others to have edit permissions to the item. This can be a security concern for some users. However, you can always go back to the “Share” settings to remove anyone you do not want to access the shared folder.

If you always want recipients to sign in with a Microsoft account (to even view the item you’re sharing), choose “Recipients need to sign in with a Microsoft account”. This helps prevent other people from accessing the shared item if a recipient forwards your message. Tap or click “Share” to save the permission settings and send a message with a link to the item. If you share an item with people who don’t have a Microsoft account, they can create one for free.

Get Link

Choose this option to share items with lots of people you might not even know personally. You can use these links to post to Facebook, LinkedIn, email, or text message. Anyone who gets the link can view, copy, and download the item. The recipients can even forward the message. Choose the type of link you want. The permissions for the item are automatically updated when you create the link.

• View only — When you share an item with this type of link, then recipients can view, copy, or download the items without signing in. They can also forward the link to other people.
• Edit — When you share an item with this type of link, the recipients can edit specific files, and can add, copy, move, rename, or even delete files in a shared folder. Recipients can forward the link, change the list of people sharing the files or folder, and even change permissions for their recipients.

Finally tap or click “Create Link”.

To post the link on a social network site, tap or click the icon for the social network. If you want to include the link in a text message, or in a printed document then you might want to shorten the link. Tap or click “Shorten link” to make the URL shorter.

Stop Sharing File or a Folder

You cannot stop sharing or control permissions through a desktop. You have to do it through the OneDrive website. To see all the items you have shared, tap or click “Shared” in the left pane, and then tap or click “Shared by me”.

If you are the owner of the item or have edit permissions then you can stop sharing an item or change the permissions others have to it. Select the checkbox of the shared item, and then tap or click “Share” on the bar at the top of the page.

Under “Shared with”, select the permissions you want to change. You can switch the permissions between editing and only viewing, and stop sharing through any links you created.

Concluding this article, it’s quite easy share file and folder. And you have a complete control in your hand—your files will only be shared with the people you choose. Just be extra cautious with the permissions.

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