I had a collection of just under 500 photos, mostly raw and dng. I selected them all with the intent of updating the metadata. Bridge started creating preview extractions, and I had to wait, and wait, and wait for my metadatadaa updates to take effect. I wasn't ready to look at the images, I just wanted to update the metadata. Besides, I don't need previews for the 200+ raw files, only the dng, psd, and jpegs. Is there a way to temporarily turn off preview extractions?
Click the "Browse quickly by preferring embedded images" square in the Application Bar (it toggles on and off) or check "Prefer Embedded (Faster)" in the "Options for thumbnail quality and preview generation" pulldown.