Xp windows explorer slow to open

The same behavior happens on both user accounts. Interesting indeed. Try deleting the existing shortcut and then create a new one. Same delay with a new shortcut. I ran the system file checker and it didn't make any changes. Looks like I'm going to have to reformat and reinstall Windows. I'm not looking forward to that! I quickly skimmed the thread so sorry if any of this is repeated Next, try testing from a clean boot.

It's more accurate and can soooo show much more about what's up on your machine. Task Manager. The clean boot has already been tried but Process Explorer might find some clues, this link goes straight to it, including a tutorial.

Process Explorer. Thanks Mark for providing the direct link and Ooops! I provided the wrong link in my earlier post. It wasn't the direct link but should have been a link to HERE. Thank-you LookinAround for joining the thread and helping. I'm a reasonably knowledgeable computer user but I may be getting out of my depth. There is a lot of other info about running processes, etc but I don't know enough about it to identify if any of it points to the problem. I'm in the process of reading through the Process Explorer help file but nothing has jumped out at me so far.

Anything specific that I should be looking for? Add'l info After looking through the links in your response, I unchecked "search for network folders and printers" in Win Ex. It didn't make any difference. Maybe a second line of attack Through this process I have noticed that this machine takes way too long to boot so I timed it with a stop watch.

Maybe one problem is causing both delays. The major delays are: -screen display that says "Loading personal preferences" takes 30 seconds My second computer has different hardware but identical software and this screen disappears very quickly -time between wallpaper display and taskbar display - 2 minutes other computer displays both almost simultaneously -total boot time -6 minutes my other computer takes about 2 minutes Is there any way to log the boot process and the time that an event happens to see where the delay is happening?

I did boot to Safe mode and set the system to create a bootlog. The ntbtlog. I have a vague memory of some way of creating a bootlog with an event time stamp but I can't seem to find any reference. Windows XP Home Thanks again for all the help! You can enable the boot logger by using F8 at startup and selecting Enable Boot Logging from the menu, it will then create a new. Do you have Winzip installed? I run Ad Aware on a regular basis, so adware is not an issue.

I do not have Winzip installed. The folder opening performance issue has been in effect since the computer was built over a year ago. First make sure you have you windows patched to the latest version and have Service Pack 1 installed.

Thanks for your suggestions, nexex. Here is some feedback. I will back up my PC tonight and try installing Service Pack 1 tomorrow evening. I'd been avoiding the Service Pack because I had read that it created problems in some cases. I tried registry fix 2, but it does not make any difference. I tried stopping that service, but it made no detectable difference in the time required to open a directory.

I now have it set to maximum performance, and just live with the periodic drive head arm noise. A little noise is better than waiting for the hard drive to decide to retrieve the data I'm looking for. Go to Run in the startmenu 2. Type gpedit. Click OK and the Group Policy will open 4. Scroll down to the bottom of the long list of stuff that now shows up in the menu on the right.

Double-Click on Turn off caching of thumbnail pictures. Click on Enable then Apply, Ok. And now you no longer have this annoying problem. Windows Explorer does behave differently now. However, if I click on the folder name, most of the time not always the subfolders are displayed immediately in the right pane. At least some success points can be awarded to nexex. The situation is significantly improved.

Click Apply 6. Click Ok 7. Close windows explorer and restart it. Office Office Exchange Server. Not an IT pro? Resources for IT Professionals. Sign in. United States English. It is worst on folders that contain sub folders that contain large numbers of small files. Windows XP indexes every file on every hard drive by default, so later searches are supposedly faster. Doesn't seem to work very well, but it better just to turn of indexing. From memory, right click on a drive or folder, go to properties, then uncheck file indexing, and check apply to all subfolders.

If it's slow to open "My Computer" it might be a network issue. If you were connected to a network drive, it will try to reconnect to it, and if its not there will keep trying until it times out.

Once it's open, look at the drives under "My Computer" and if any of the network drives show up as disconnected right click on the icon and select the "disconnect" option.

Yes, I know that disconnecting a disconnected drive sounds odd - I didn't write it! The way to fix the problem is to get into windows explorer right click on a Jpeg thumbnail and click on properties. This will open the Properties Window.

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