Slow file viewing over network in XP

[DrRock]

I am trying to view the contents of a file with about 4 gigs of pictures over a network. My computer has XP on it and the computer with the pictures on it is a win98 system. It takes several minutes to load the file to view it. All of the other computers on the network can view the file in an instant. The XP machine is new, is there a setting I can change to make it remember what is in this file or something like that? Thanks for your help. -Sam

 

[earthling30]

This is one way:
>Open the folder options in the control panel.
>Click the View tab.
>Un-check Automatically search for network folders and printers.
>Click OK.

Another way:
Try mapping network drive.
>Go to the folder with the pictures on your XP machine through your Network places.
>Click Tools then click Map Network Drive
>And follow the instructions.

There is also a registry tweak but I don't have my notes with me and I don't like giving anyone registry instructions without my notes, but I'll get it to you.

 

[earthling30]

Here you go, I finally found it. Follow the registry tweak exactly how it is listed and back up this portion of the registry before making the changes.

If you don't know how to back up your registry read the following below:
Back Up and Restore Registry Entries
Another Way!
To restore the registry

To speed up Network Browsing by removing Network Scheduled Tasks!
From the run box type regedit and delete what is listed in bold below!
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\RemoteComputer\NameSpace\{D6277990-4C6A-11CF-8D87-00AA0060F5BF}
Let us know if this helps any!

 

[DrRock]

Hey Earthling, thanks for the help, but nothing has worked yet. This sucks, I need to access those pictures for my job and it is really slowing me down. I upgrade computers and my performance gets worse. Does XP have a problem networking with 98? The win98 machines fly around the network no problem, but the XP machines are really really slow. Are there any security settings that can be changed? Thanks.

 

[earthling30]

Originally posted by: DrRock
Hey Earthling, thanks for the help, but nothing has worked yet. This sucks, I need to access those pictures for my job and it is really slowing me down. I upgrade computers and my performance gets worse. Does XP have a problem networking with 98? The win98 machines fly around the network no problem, but the XP machines are really really slow. Are there any security settings that can be changed? Thanks.

Let me do some more research and I'll get back to you, or unless someone else knows in this forum. I'll keep you posted.

 

[DrRock]

Thanks Earthling. Anybody else want a shot at this? Is this a common problem or is it just me?

 

[earthling30]

I did a google search and I came up with the following:
http://www.petri.co.il/speed_up_network_file_copying_in_windows_xp.htm

This one talks about Windows update.
http://briansbuzz.com/w/030619/

The forum thread listed below suggests a couple things:
http://computing.net/networking/wwwboard/forum/11526.html
I hope that this is starting to help you out. Have you tried what I first suggested by Mapping the Network files? Let us know if this helps any!

 

[earthling30]

If none of these suggestions work, you might want to try the Networking forum. On my last reply one of the links talks about your hardware. Come to think of it, my uncle used to work at Cisco and he once told me the exact same thing. That might be something to look into. Hope this helps.

 

[UMCorona]

Originally posted by: DrRock
I am trying to view the contents of a file with about 4 gigs of pictures over a network. My computer has XP on it and the computer with the pictures on it is a win98 system. It takes several minutes to load the file to view it. All of the other computers on the network can view the file in an instant. The XP machine is new, is there a setting I can change to make it remember what is in this file or something like that? Thanks for your help. -Sam

I think what you're trying to say is that you're trying to view the contents of a folder with about 4 gigs of pictures in it and it's loading extremely slowly on your XP system. If this is the case, I imagine it's due to Explorer trying to load up thumbnails or other info about all of the pictures in that folder, whereas older versions of Windows don't have that "feature". What you need to do is turn off the option to view thumbnails or whatever Explorer does with folders containing image files by default. I'm not on my XP machine at the moment, so I can't tell you step by step how to do that, but it should be something like:

1. Open Windows Explorer (hit My Computer or any folder)
2. Select Tools -> Folder Options from the menu.
3. Select the View Tab
4. Find any option regarding image caching and uncheck it.

Another thing you can do is open up any folder with Windows Explorer, select View from the menu and set it to Details or List (anything other than thumbnails, really) and that should help.

If none of that helps, or has already been done and I'm completely wrong, then you might have to just split up the files into separate folders instead of that one huge one in order to speed up the viewing time.

 

[UMCorona]

Just got home and checked. In the Tools menu for Windows Explorer go into Folder Options and hit the View tab. In there you want to make sure "Do not cache thumbnails" is checked. That should help.