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