Annoying pauses when browsing folders (Windows XP)

[Piuc2020]

My machine:
E6750
4GB RAM
DG33BU
80GB 7200.9 Seagate Barracuda
250GB 7200.9 Seagate Barracuda

I'm seriously fed up with these pauses, sometimes when I try to open a folder, the Windows Explorer just pauses for like a second and then opens the folder (instead of being instantaneous), the thing is, it doesn't happen with every folder and it's not always predictable, usually when I close down all my windows and go to access something in my disk I get the pause or when I close a folder window and then try to open my HD from "My Computer" and I get the pause but it's not always reproducible. It's driving me mad.

I have Windows XP SP3, Vista on this very same machine works like a charm (not a single pause, Windows Explorer is snappy as hell) and Windows XP SP3 on my Mac Pro also works like a charm, what could be causing this? I've optimized and defragged with Perfect Disk and I have TuneXP with most of the tweaks (I tried disabling them but the annoying pauses were still there), I've run Registry Mechanic and CCleaner but it doesn't affect the pauses. I have no spyware or malware, I disabled Indexing and NTFS timestamp for all my partitions and reduced my startup and running processes to a minimum (all I have running on my tray is sound, forceware and windows defender).

The rest of the computer is working fine, applications open fast, drive performance seems to be ok and overall game and application performance is as expected, it's only this annoying pauses that are driving me mad... any ideas? CPU usage is 0% on an idle state (as it should be) but if it means anything I'm constantly at 100% on one core when opening folders.

Here is a video of the problem: Video
*It's harder to notice the problem without sound but take notice to the opening of "HD-XP" at the start and then later on in the video, notice the time between HD-XP turning blue and the folder actually opening.

If you need any more info just tell me.

 

[Jiggz]

I don't know dude! But if you call that microsecond hesitation a pause, then maybe my system "sleeps" between mouse clicks!

 

[Piuc2020]

Well I know it's not a big pause but their random appearance and the fact that they are non-existant on Vista and on my other computers bugs the hell out of me.

 

[trexpesto]

Indexing is on? Should speed things up if I recall correctly.

Did you try Explorer > Tools > Folder Options and disable:
'Automatically search for network folders and printers'
'Remember each folder's view settings'

Edit: did you try disabling special effects and transitions?

 

[Piuc2020]

Gonna try those thanks.

 

[SoundTheSurrender]

Are these folders dealing with .AVI files?

Because I think Windows tries to retrieve codecs and it eats a lot of resources.

 

[trexpesto]

enable caching of thumbnails, if you have thumbnails?

Edit: OK OK, if you use thumbnail views on your Computer

 

[Piuc2020]

I tried those suggestions and initially unchecking "automatically search for network folders and printers" seemed to have done the trick except then I fired up UT3, came back to the desktop only to meet again with the annoying pause of death. My folders don't have to specifically deal with AVI files or Thumbnails to get the pause, it can be any folder (even a folder containing just a bunch of text files and empty folders). I always get the pause on my HD on "My Computer" after closing down all my firefox windows or after browsing for a while, if I close down a folder then inmediately try to open another, I also get the pause.

I'm out of luck, god, I hate Windows, I just wish Microsoft gave up and made DirectX for OSX and then every developer in the world was hypnotized to stop making Windows software and make it all OSX. My stupid gaming hobby has me dealing with the horrible horrible system Windows is.

/frustration.

Any more ideas?

 

[MrChad]

I'm not seeing any significant pauses in your video.

Check out the tips here and see if disabling some shell extensions helps you out.

 

[Piuc2020]

Well, notice the pause between "HD-XP" turning blue and the folder actually opening, if folders opening as slow as this is "insignificant" then I applaud you for not being as obsessive as I am but I find it extremely annoying and counter-productive and just so plain weird and annoying because I don't get this problem on Vista or on other XP machines (that are slower than this one) so I'm really pulling my hair out with this one.

Thanks for the suggestion anyways, I appreciate it but my problem is not related to a bad context handler, right clicking is working fine for me.

 

[MrChad]

Perhaps it has something to do with using a pre-release service pack?

 

[Piuc2020]

Originally posted by: MrChad
Perhaps it has something to do with using a pre-release service pack?

I've thought about it and yeah, it's possible, I've never run a clean SP2 on this computer, I always go straight to SP3, I just hope Microsoft release the RTM version of SP3 so I can put my doubts to rest, but still, SP3 works just fine on my Mac Pro so I'm not sure what to think.

I may just stop using XP and stick to Vista but then Vista has scaling problems and I'm currently playing a lot of older 4:3 only games not to mention my new games like UT3 and Crysis are only installed on XP because I get better performance and I have no interested in installing them on Vista (and waste like 15GB of space).

I'm pretty much screwed but oh well, hopefully I'll get rid of this pauses eventually, I'm getting used to them, what bothers me so much is not knowing what causes them and most importantly not getting them in Vista and other XP installations meaning something is possibly wrong with my system.

 

[gorobei]

check for virus.

 

[spittledip]

Sorry to bring back this old post, but I have been looking for a solution to this same problem. I run a very clean system, regular maintenance, no viruses, etc. No reason for folders to open slowly. I scoured the web and came up empty (this thread was one of the things I found in my searching). Then I figured I would try something: set priority to above normal for Explorer in task manager. This worked! So if anyone is having this issue, this is a possible solution.

Of course, i think that I should not have to set priority to explorer to get my folders to open at a decent speed. I do not think it was a bad move though. What do others think about this solution?

 

[heiden98]

I stumbled upon this thread for the same reasons as the OP described, especially annoying with network mounted external shares on some linux file servers. Reading some of the answers I tried my luck with Tools->Folder Options->View and realized that I had switched on "Display file size information in folder tips". Turning this off immediately fixed it. Apparently, some file types/extensions don't make it easy for WindowsExplorer to know their sizes, so it will go there and count. The bigger the files the longer .

 

[YuliApp]

I stumbled upon this thread for the same reasons as the OP described, especially annoying with network mounted external shares on some linux file servers. Reading some of the answers I tried my luck with Tools->Folder Options->View and realized that I had switched on "Display file size information in folder tips". Turning this off immediately fixed it. Apparently, some file types/extensions don't make it easy for WindowsExplorer to know their sizes, so it will go there and count. The bigger the files the longer .

i am pretty sure OP fixed or upgraded his system since 9 years

 

[heiden98]

Sure, but I have silently suffered for years and finally got fed up enough to fix it. This is the first thread I found that actually dealt with it.
BTW, I still use XP as a VM (never goes to the internet) inside SuSE leap, only because WindowsExplorer IMHO is by far the best file manager, you could give me money and I still wouldn't use Nautilus, Dolphin, Thunar, etc.
So, there.

 

[Ketchup]

I'll be honest. I saw the initial date and thought it was some spammer post as usual. But heiden98 is correct here. I often get files in my Downloads folder that will force me to turn off the size column if I want to see what's in that folder in a reasonable amount of time.

 

[YuliApp]

something learned again...
so my cakeday starts good

 

[JackMDS]

It does Not matter which version of Windows one use the Best Explorer is this.

http://freecommander.com/en/downloads/

 

[YuliApp]

i still use total commander . Got it introduced by some very oldschool guy i adore and fell in love with it

 

[lxskllr]

At work, I had the power drop in the middle of a defrag once, and it hosed explorer(winxp). It would work, but take forever to do anything. I temporarily fixed it by using a third party file manager, and permanently fixed it by installing xubuntu.

 

[Herr Kutz]

When they upgraded my work computer from Windows 7 to Windows 10 I got the annoying folder browsing pause glitch. Sometimes it would take 10-15 seconds to open a folder! They wound up swapping out my computer (with clean install) but all I probably needed was a clean install on the old machine. Not that I'm complaining about the new computer.