Hi,

Whenever I try to open any Windows Explorer program like My Computer,
Control Panel, Recycle Bin, etc. the window immediately freezes (though
nothing else on the PC freezes) and goes into a non-responsive state. If I
just do other stuff for about 3-5 minutes the window will eventually open
correctly, but this is obviously a problem. Does anyone know what is causing
this or how to fix it? (Or both?) Thanks so much for your time.

-SpikeDelight

In message
SpikeDelight wrote:

Whenever I try to open any Windows Explorer program like My Computer,
Control Panel, Recycle Bin, etc. the window immediately freezes (though
nothing else on the PC freezes) and goes into a non-responsive state. If I
just do other stuff for about 3-5 minutes the window will eventually open
correctly, but this is obviously a problem. Does anyone know what is causing
this or how to fix it? (Or both?) Thanks so much for your time.

Do you have any network drives mapped to drive letters?

DevilsPGD wrote:
In message
SpikeDelight wrote:

Whenever I try to open any Windows Explorer program like My Computer,
Control Panel, Recycle Bin, etc. the window immediately freezes (though
nothing else on the PC freezes) and goes into a non-responsive state. If I
just do other stuff for about 3-5 minutes the window will eventually open
correctly, but this is obviously a problem. Does anyone know what is causing
this or how to fix it? (Or both?) Thanks so much for your time.

Do you have any network drives mapped to drive letters?

I've figured that two possible issues cause this:

-- Vista is trying to reconnect to network drives and is scanning the
network (you can see a progress bar at the top of the window as it does
this)

-- Vista's search and indexer is running on the directories you're
exposing in Explorer. I noticed a major improvement in speed when I
entirely disabled search and indexing in the services console.

My Drives a

Floppy Disk Drive (A)
Local Disk (C)
DVD RW (D)
DVD (E)

And I'll try to shut off Indexing now

"pbk" wrote:

DevilsPGD wrote:
In message
SpikeDelight wrote:

Whenever I try to open any Windows Explorer program like My Computer,
Control Panel, Recycle Bin, etc. the window immediately freezes (though
nothing else on the PC freezes) and goes into a non-responsive state. If I
just do other stuff for about 3-5 minutes the window will eventually open
correctly, but this is obviously a problem. Does anyone know what is causing
this or how to fix it? (Or both?) Thanks so much for your time.

Do you have any network drives mapped to drive letters?

I've figured that two possible issues cause this:

-- Vista is trying to reconnect to network drives and is scanning the
network (you can see a progress bar at the top of the window as it does
this)

-- Vista's search and indexer is running on the directories you're
exposing in Explorer. I noticed a major improvement in speed when I
entirely disabled search and indexing in the services console.

Wait, sorry but how do I get to the services console?

"SpikeDelight" wrote:

My Drives a

Floppy Disk Drive (A)
Local Disk (C)
DVD RW (D)
DVD (E)

And I'll try to shut off Indexing now

"pbk" wrote:

DevilsPGD wrote:
In message
SpikeDelight wrote:

Whenever I try to open any Windows Explorer program like My Computer,
Control Panel, Recycle Bin, etc. the window immediately freezes (though
nothing else on the PC freezes) and goes into a non-responsive state. If I
just do other stuff for about 3-5 minutes the window will eventually open
correctly, but this is obviously a problem. Does anyone know what is causing
this or how to fix it? (Or both?) Thanks so much for your time.

Do you have any network drives mapped to drive letters?

I've figured that two possible issues cause this:

-- Vista is trying to reconnect to network drives and is scanning the
network (you can see a progress bar at the top of the window as it does
this)

-- Vista's search and indexer is running on the directories you're
exposing in Explorer. I noticed a major improvement in speed when I
entirely disabled search and indexing in the services console.

In message
SpikeDelight wrote:

Wait, sorry but how do I get to the services console?

Hit the start orb, type "services.msc" and hit enter. However, indexing
should not cause any significant performance impact. The disk queuing
system and the fact that the indexer backs off work together to create a
non-impact for nearly everyone (although I do have to admit, I did have
one machine that just got crushed with indexing enabled. Never figured
it out as the machine was missing a couple critical drivers for Vista)

I Stopped Windows Search but it didn't do anything and Indexing on the C
drive was already turned off when I went to the C Drive Properties. Does
anyone have any other suggestions?

"DevilsPGD" wrote:

In message
SpikeDelight wrote:

Wait, sorry but how do I get to the services console?

Hit the start orb, type "services.msc" and hit enter. However, indexing
should not cause any significant performance impact. The disk queuing
system and the fact that the indexer backs off work together to create a
non-impact for nearly everyone (although I do have to admit, I did have
one machine that just got crushed with indexing enabled. Never figured
it out as the machine was missing a couple critical drivers for Vista)

Are you on a network? Having the wrong workgroup name causes all sorts of
weird things like this.

XP machines have a default workgroup name of MSHOME, whereas Vista machines
have a default workgroup name of WORKGROUP. Obviously they should all be
made the same.

You wouldn't this this relevant, would you? But in my experience it causes
these odd delays in Explorer while it blindly gropes around the network in
the background.

SteveT

I renamed my network connection to the same one as my other PCs have, but I'm
still getting a very slow Windows Explorer. This is very weird. It's not even
like my PC ever chugs at anything else, either. It's a 5.7 on the Rating
thing.
"Steve Thackery" wrote:

Are you on a network? Having the wrong workgroup name causes all sorts of
weird things like this.

XP machines have a default workgroup name of MSHOME, whereas Vista machines
have a default workgroup name of WORKGROUP. Obviously they should all be
made the same.

You wouldn't this this relevant, would you? But in my experience it causes
these odd delays in Explorer while it blindly gropes around the network in
the background.

SteveT

"SpikeDelight" wrote:

Hi,

Whenever I try to open any Windows Explorer program like My Computer,
Control Panel, Recycle Bin, etc. the window immediately freezes (though
nothing else on the PC freezes) and goes into a non-responsive state. If I
just do other stuff for about 3-5 minutes the window will eventually open
correctly, but this is obviously a problem. Does anyone know what is causing
this or how to fix it? (Or both?) Thanks so much for your time.

-SpikeDelight

i don't know if you have got the same problem as i recently had but my vista became incredibly slow.
tried everything to track down problem (including posting on this site).
eventually performance analyser in system pointed towards progarams.
go into control panelprogramsstart up programs.
once in windows defender if you find yourself in the same position as i did
you may well find as many as 20 different programs 'enabled' and aparently
all starting up when the computer. 'disable' a few of them!
My vista has never worked quicker.
Is this an inherent fault with vista that it sets programs to auto-start up
as a default?