If any of you out there like to use the thumbnail view, especially for browsing through photos and images, it can become a bit of a drain on your system. It is possible to lower the thumbnail size and quality by editing the following registry keys.
Open the registry and navigate to :
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\ Software\ Microsoft \ Windows\ CurrentVersion\ Explorer
Create a new DWORD value called ThumbnailSize, and set the value between 32 and 256.
And/or create another DWORD value called ThumbnailQuality, and set the value between 50 and 100.
Key Details :
USER Key: [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\ Software\ Microsoft \ Windows\ CurrentVersion\ Explorer]
Value Name: ThumbnailSize
Data Type: REG_DWORD (DWORD Value)
Data Value: 32 - 256
USER Key: [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\ Software\ Microsoft \ Windows\ CurrentVersion\ Explorer]
Value Name: ThumbnailQuality
Data Type: REG_DWORD (DWORD Value)
Data Value: 50 - 100