Folder size following cutting of contents incorrect

[Guest]

I have many folders containing digital photos. When I cut and paste to a new
folder so that there are no images left the folders are still shown to be
between 645 KB to 1.57 MB in size, rather than being "Empty".

I have turned on "View hidden files" and the only file left is called
"Desktop" (Type: Configuration Settings) and is about 107bytes in size.

Amazingly I see no Thumbs.db files as in the past I have found them to be
everywhere!

I am using Windows XP SP2.

My two questions are:

1. Why are the folders so large when the content is so small?

2. What is the file "Desktop" and what was its purpose and is it bad that I
haven't copied it across to the new location as well?

 

[Wesley Vogel]

2. What is the file "Desktop" and what was its purpose and is it bad

that I haven't copied it across to the new location as well?

The file is really named desktop.ini. You do not have files extensions
turned on.

If the desktop.ini file contains this entry...

[DeleteOnCopy]

It means that if you copy a desktop.ini and paste it into
another folder, the copy of the desktop.ini will be blank. Or if you copy
the folder elsewhere – for instance, to back up the contents – these entries
will not be copied.

Here's the *short* version.

File system folders are commonly displayed with a standard icon and set of
properties, which specify, for instance, whether or not the folder is
shared. The Desktop.ini file is a text file that specifies how a file
system folder will be viewed and handled. The most common use of the
Desktop.ini file is to assign a custom icon to a folder.

Also folders like My Recent Documents, its real name is Recent but because
there is a desktop.ini file in that folder, it gets the name My Recent
Documents. Shared Documents folder with a messed up or missing desktop.ini
file the name changes to just Documents. Shared Music becomes My Music.
Shared Pictures becomes My Pictures. Shared Video becomes My Videos.

If you want it, there's more.

--
Hope this helps. Let us know.

Wes
MS-MVP Windows Shell/User

In

 

[Guest]

Thanks Wes. That explains a lot, any thoughts on Question 1?

 

[Guest]

Sorry, me again.

I just turned on the "Hide Protected Operating System Files", which I
received warnings about doing. And Lo and behold up pops a Thumbs.db file,
which explains the size of these folders. Windows however tells me that
these Thumbs.db files are "used by the operating system and by various
programs. Editing or modifying them could damage your system."

Isit really so bad to delete them, any idea what they actually do.

 

[Ayush]

You can delete that file. The Thumbs.db file is used to store the thumbnails
of the pictures (for faster viewing) in the folder . Its size will be
according to the number of pictures in folder.

--
Ayush [ Be ''?'' Happy ]

Search - www.Google.com | Wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org
Snip your long urls - http://snipurl.com/

Replied to [Taxed Mind]'s message :
-----------------------------------------------------------

 

[Wesley Vogel]

Aha! Forgot about thumbs.db. I do NOT cache thumbnails and I do not have a
single thumbs.db file on my machine. For one thing I have a 10GB hard drive
and I do not keep anything on it that I consider a waste of space. I have
to keep this little hard drive lean and mean. ;-)

The thumbs.db file is generated by Windows. It is a database file containing
the small images displayed when you view a folder in Thumbnail View (as
opposed to Tile, Icon, List or Detail View).

Thumbs.db file contains the thumbnails for a particular folder.

Windows XP uses a compressed database file (Thumbs.db) to increase
performance.

To get rid of Thumbs.db files, open Folder Options...

Start | Run | Type: control folders | Click OK |
View tab | Check: Do not cache thumbnails |
Click Apply | Click OK

Do not cache thumbnails
[[Disables automatic storage of folder thumbnails in a cache file. When you
store thumbnail images in a cache file, Windows can reuse them instead of
creating new ones every time you open a folder. If you disable this
automatic storage function, folders that contain thumbnails might take
longer to open.]]

If you do not change the Do not cache thumbnails setting, deleting any
thumbs.db will be a waste of time because they will just be recreated again
in folders that are set in Thumbnail View.

If you use Thumbnail views a lot, you may want to UNCheck Do not cache
thumbnails.

To recreate the Thumbs.db file, click the folder whose contents you are
trying to view in Windows Explorer and then click Thumbnails on
the View menu.

Note: To see the Thumbs.db file, you must be able to view hidden files. To
view hidden files, click Folder Options on the View menu in Windows
Explorer, click the View tab, click Show All Files and then click OK.

Hide protected operating system files (Recommended) needs to be UNChecked
also.

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\
Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced
Value Name: DisableThumbnailCache
Data Type: REG_DWORD
Value Data: 0 or 1
0 = enabled
1 = disable cache

Stop Windows from saving the thumbnail cache (THUMBS.DB)
http://www.annoyances.org/exec/show/article03-204

Disable the automatic display of thumbnails in certain folders
http://www.annoyances.org/exec/show/article03-203

--
Hope this helps. Let us know.

Wes
MS-MVP Windows Shell/User

In

 

[Guest]

Thanks Guys.

You have both heped out a lot.

Cheers

 

[Wesley Vogel]

Keep having fun!

--
Hope this helps. Let us know.

Wes
MS-MVP Windows Shell/User

In