SLOW Tedious Windows Explorer startup: what causes?

cognus

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seeing something I have not noticed on other 8.1's I've worked on. Samsung NP365E5C.. everything about the laptop is clean and pretty zippy EXCEPT Windows Explorer. Especially, best I can tell, the first run [first "open folder"] after a restart or login. At first you will see "Empty" folder... No items, then you get the green "thermometer" visual in the address bar, tediously making its way through a search, apparently, then the folder will begin to populate, all in slow-mo.

???? I'm clueless.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Win 8.1, Win 10P, Win7-all, RIP XPP, 'droid 2.2, 2.3,4.x, 5..IOS,
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    many: E5440, 430 G1, E45, G4-1117DX, X120E, DC7600, X83VB-X2, NC10, Droids, Galaxy,
    CPU
    too many
    Motherboard
    ditto
    Memory
    ditto
    Graphics Card(s)
    ditto
    Internet Speed
    30mbps
indexing

Hi Cognmus,
first thought,
Is indexing enabled in the folder options

Roy
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    8.1 x64
    Computer type
    Laptop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    x55a asus
    Antivirus
    bitdefender
    Other Info
    this laptop was/is still posted on asus website as W7
I've personally noticed that, and I do know what you're talking about.
The green crawler shows you that Explorer is reading the directory for the entire hard drive, so it can display whatever folder or files you choose. It should only have to do that once per session.

That may be slower if you have a lot of services, TSR's and/or programs running at the same time. It might get really slow if your AV program is doing a scan. Since it has to read the directory entry for EVERY file on the HD, keeping your HD clean of junk files can help to solve the problem.

To maximize efficiency, I try real hard to minimize all the background programs that run on my PC. If it's not absolutely, positively and 100% necessary to be running, I disable or delete it.
On XP, I disabled up to 24 services, but on 8 or 8.1 that number goes up to around 40, services that I don't need and don't want running. Every running service takes up RAM and CPU time.

I found a great list of Services and what ones could be either disabled or put into Manual mode, on the "Black Viper" web site.

Just a thought.....

TM :cool:
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Win-8.1/Pro/64
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Acer X-1200
    CPU
    AMD 2 Core
    Motherboard
    Acer
    Memory
    Crucial, 4GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    NVIDEA GeForce 9200
    Sound Card
    On Board
    Monitor(s) Displays
    24" Acer
    Hard Drives
    Sandisk, SSD 500GB
    PSU
    Acer
    Case
    SFF Slimline
    Keyboard
    emachines 101 key
    Mouse
    Logitech Wireless
    Internet Speed
    5 Meg
    Browser
    Firefox
    Antivirus
    Windows Defender
    Other Info
    Using Classic Shell on Win-8.1 /pro/64
2 possibilities that might have caused this problem:
  1. The Hard Drive might be corrupted. Open the elevated command prompt and run:
    - chkntfs /T:10 ==> Set the coundown time to 10 sec before chkdsk run, just in case you want to abort.
    - chkdsk /r /f C: ==> Requires reboot and will take a while to complete.

    If the problem is fixed then you are done. If not, go to step 2
  2. Incompatible Shell Extension:
    Please download: ShellExView - Shell Extension Manager For Windows This program does not require installation, just right click and run as Administrator
  3. From the menu, click on Options then click on Filter by Extension Type and select Context Menu
  4. On the list, you'll see some of the entries with pink background, those are installed by the third party software
  5. Hold down CTRL Key and select all of them then click on the red button on top left corner to disable.
  6. Click on the Options again and select Restart Explorer
  7. Now try to open Windows Explorer to see if it fixes your problem. If it does then start to enable one by one and repeat step 6 until the problem occurs again, that's the offending extension.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    8.1x64PWMC Ubuntu14.04x64 MintMate17x64
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Home Brewed
    CPU
    I7 4970K OC'ed @4.7 GHz
    Motherboard
    MSI-Z97
    Memory
    16 GB G-Skill Trident X @2400MHZ
    Graphics Card(s)
    NVIDIA GeForce GTS 450
    Sound Card
    X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Professional Series
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Dual HP-W2408
    Screen Resolution
    1920X1200
    Hard Drives
    256 GB M2 sm951, (2) 500GB 850EVO, 5TB, 2 TB Seagate
    PSU
    Antec 850W
    Case
    Antec 1200
    Cooling
    Danger Den H20
    Keyboard
    Logitech
    Mouse
    Logitech Performance Mouse MX
    Internet Speed
    35/12mbps
    Browser
    Firefox
There was a Microsoft KB update, that caused part of this. I forget which one it was specifically. I do believe it was right before 8.1 came out, when it created this problem.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Linux Mint 17.2
    Computer type
    Laptop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Toshiba Satellite C850D-st3nx1
    CPU
    AMD E1-1200 APU with Radeon (tm) HD Graphics 1.40 GHZ
    Memory
    12GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    AMD Radeon™ HD 7310 Graphics
    Sound Card
    Realtek HD
    Monitor(s) Displays
    LCD
    Screen Resolution
    1366 x 768
    Hard Drives
    Crucial M500 240GB SSD
    Mouse
    Logitech M525
    Internet Speed
    45/6 - ATT U-Verse
    Browser
    Google Chrome
    Antivirus
    None needed. It is Linux.
    Other Info
    Arris NVG589 Gateway; Router - Cisco RV320; Switch - Netgear GS108 8-Port Switch & Trendnet TEG-S50g 5-Port Switch; Access Points - Engenius ECB350, Trendnet TEW-638APB; NAS - Lenovo ix2-4; Printer - Brother HL-2280DW; Air Print Server - Lantronix XPrintServer

    A/V UPS - Tripp-Lite Smart 1500LCD 1500 Va/900 W.
I'm a bit out of my depth on this and this may be off on the wrong track but one thing I have had that caused the very slow progress bar on opening libraries or "this PC" was my wi-fi printer being off line (as in not turned on which how it is most of the time). The printer has an inbuilt card reader and that shows as a networked drive if I recall correctly, and if its not available then the above happens. The answer was just to right click and delete it.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    W10 x64 pro and W8.1 x86
    Computer type
    Laptop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Dell Vostro 3750/Acer 9301
    CPU
    Intel i5/AMD Turion 64
    Memory
    4Gb/2Gb
    Graphics Card(s)
    Intel i5 internal/NVidia GEFORCE GO 6100
    Sound Card
    Realtek
    Hard Drives
    250Gb SSD and 120Gb
    Mouse
    HP Z4000
    Internet Speed
    76 down, 20 up
    Browser
    MS Edge
    Antivirus
    Defender
Yup. Now that you mention it, that green super slow progressbar is a tip off that it's searching the network. Even non-indexed drives don't search that slowly.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.0 x64
    Computer type
    Laptop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Toshiba Satelite C55D-A Laptop
    CPU
    AMD EI 1200
    Memory
    4 gb DDR3
    Graphics Card(s)
    Raedon 340 MB dedicated Ram
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Built in
    Screen Resolution
    1366 x 768
    Hard Drives
    640 GB (spinner) Sata II
    Keyboard
    Built in
    Mouse
    Touch pad
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