How to keep windows explorer from showing icons in a specific folder?

Question

I've got a directory inside my personal folder that has a few hundred items in it. Since most of them are installers for different programs each one has its own icon. Problem is: when I open that folder in windows explorer it takes over half a minute to load up all the icons. Meanwhile, everything else gets laggy. Is there a way I can stop windows from loading up and showing icons for the applications in that folder?

EDIT: Changing the viewmode doesn't seem to help. Be it Details, List, or Tiny, they all show the icons.

Answer 1

Change the display of that folder from "Thumbnails" to "Details" (say). Right click > View > ...

Then select Tools > Folder Options... > View and make sure that the "Remember each folder's view settings" option is checked.

Answer 2

Maybe there is something wrong with your system cache. I recommend you clean it with a utility. I personaly like this one : http://www.piriform.com/ccleaner

Answer 3

Try creating a new folder and copying all the files to the new folder. Does the new folder behave the same way? If it doesn't, then probably some of the files in the original folder were both very large and very fragmented. You might want to consider defragmenting your hard drive. Other things you can try: if I'm right and there are a few very large files, try moving them elsewhere to see if that makes any difference. One of the problems with the Windows EXE file format is that the icon data is at the end of the file, so to get to it, Windows basically has to read all the way to the end of the file. If a file is both large and fragmented, this can take a while. Shell replacement utilities like FreeCommander include an option to turn off the default behaviour of always showing a file with its proper icon - an option aimed at making things faster.