How to remove/disable the icon/thumbnail that floats above the pointer when dragging a file or folder in Explorer

Question

This problem is persistent for many, many years (back to at least 2010s). Obviously, Microsoft is paying no attention to these forums, so it is stupidity personified to enter it again. But I hope against hope that someone may have found an answer by now. Or maybe AI will finally fix it.

Answer 1

Hello,

My name is Pavel Poddubny, and I will be happy to assist you! ✨

Press Win+R to open "Run":

Copy and paste the following command and press Enter:

REG ADD HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer /v DisableThumbnails /t REG_DWORD /d 1

You should see a message saying "The operation completed successfully." You will need to restart your computer for the changes to take effect.

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