Windows XP Folder Options Question
 

When I think like a computer or how I think how a computer would perform, I am usually completely wrong. Heretofore: I have thousands of pics, videos, music, etc. on my computer. I am incredibly anal and obsessive about filing and keeping everything uncluttered so I have many, many folders. Under Views on the Tool Bar at the top of your screen you have a number of options. I always keep my folders in List form because I thought (so above) that it would be less likely to tax system resources (display a tiny version of every pic, likein Thumbnail form, must tax the harddrive, RAM, etc.). So my question is, finally, does keeping your View in Thumbnail form make my computer work harder. I like to see what's inside my folders but not at the expense of efficiency. What does everyone else use? Just wondering and thanks for your thoughts and help.

View in Thumbnail (assuming you don't have "Cache Thumbnails" turned off) will - the first time you make it view the folder - cause a performance hit while it generates the thumbnails. However, it will then store them in thumbs.db so that in the future it loads much faster.

As for "is it slower than `List Mode`" ? Yea, it is. You're displaying images instead of pure text, so it'll run a bit slower.

I am sorry I don't think I understand. If I want use the Thumbnail version to look at my folders I should have my Cache Thumbnails unchecked? Or is it the exact opposite? Thanks

you want to have cache thumbnails tunened on. otherwise you'd have to re-cache everytime you opened the folder.