Skip to content

Glossary

Thumbcache

The per-user Windows thumbnail cache (thumbcache_*.db) introduced in Windows Vista, stored under %LOCALAPPDATA%\Microsoft\Windows\Explorer.

Thumbcache is the thumbnail cache Windows Explorer has used since Windows Vista. Thumbnails of pictures, videos and documents are stored in a set of per-user databases named thumbcache_<size>.db under %LOCALAPPDATA%\Microsoft\Windows\Explorer, one database per size class, with thumbcache_idx.db as the index. Each entry is identified by a 64-bit thumbnail cache ID and starts with the signature CMMM. Because thumbnails remain after the source files are deleted, thumbcache is an important artifact in digital forensics.