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  1. C:
  2. Users
  3. <utilisateur>
  4. AppData
  5. Local
  6. Microsoft
  7. Windows
  8. Explorer
FolderRisk: Safe

Explorer C:\Users\<utilisateur>\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Explorer

The user's File Explorer caches: thumbnails (thumbcache) and icons (iconcache), rebuilt automatically.

Updated on By AltF4 Formation

What it’s for

File Explorer keeps its graphics caches here: thumbnails of images and videos, plus icons. Everything is regenerated on demand, so nothing in it is irreplaceable. The folder sits under %LOCALAPPDATA%, so it does not follow a roaming profile.

What it contains

  • thumbcache_*.db: thumbnail databases, one per size (thumbcache_96.db, thumbcache_256.db, and so on).
  • iconcache_*.db: the icon cache.

The files stay locked while Explorer is running.

Risks and best practices

  • Clearing these files is safe: Windows rebuilds the caches, and thumbnails show up a little slower at first. It is the usual fix for wrong or missing thumbnails and corrupted icons.
  • To release the files, close File Explorer windows or restart explorer.exe. Disk Cleanup also offers a “Thumbnails” option.
  • In forensics, the thumbnail databases can retain traces of images that were later deleted.

Useful commands

Fenêtre de terminal
# Thumbnail and icon caches (read-only)
Get-ChildItem "$env:LOCALAPPDATA\Microsoft\Windows\Explorer" -Force | Select-Object Name, Length, LastWriteTime


# Clear the caches (close File Explorer windows first; remove -WhatIf to run)
Get-ChildItem "$env:LOCALAPPDATA\Microsoft\Windows\Explorer" -Include thumbcache_*.db, iconcache_*.db -Force |
  Remove-Item -WhatIf

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