Disabling Thumbnail Generation
Sitecore automatically generates thumbnails for all files uploaded to the Media Library, except for files which match the ignorefiles mask defined in the web.config file.
<ignorefiles>
<file find="icon16x16"/>
<file find="icon32x32"/>
<file find="icon48x48"/>
<file find="temp"/>
<file find="_thumb"/>
</ignorefiles>
In case a file's name matches one of the masks, the physical file will be uploaded, but the media Item and the thumbnails will not be created.