The computer opens files very slowly. Speed up opening folders in Windows Explorer
Are your folders opening slowly?
Good day, dear guests!
Have you ever observed this effect: a lot of different files from the Internet have accumulated in your Downloads folder and this folder begins to open slowly when you go into it? Although it could be any other folder with a large number of files. I have observed similar slowdowns when opening on various computers of my clients and others. This, of course, irritated me, as it did you, I suppose. And now I will share a method that will increase the speed of opening a folder in Windows (7, 8 or 10).
Why are your folders loading so slowly?
This is a long-standing feature that dates back to Windows Vista. It allows the user to "explain" to Explorer what type of files are contained in certain directories, in order to optimize the way they are displayed.
For example, if you create a Music folder, then copy several mp3 files into it, Windows Explorer will automatically optimize it for Music content. That is, when you open a folder, you will notice new columns that were not there before, for example, “Title, Artist, Album.” You can do this experiment yourself and see for yourself.
But when a folder is optimized for “Images”, but in fact a bunch of the most beautiful ones are stored inside different files, of which no more than 1% are actually pictures, then this function turns from a convenient and pleasant feature into an annoying and annoying bug. After all, when a folder is optimized for images, then when you open it, Explorer immediately starts going through all the files inside to check and update all the thumbnails/thumbnails of all found files, especially if there have been recent changes (adding/deleting).
What if there are downloaded programs inside that your antivirus immediately starts to take an interest in? Can you imagine how Explorer and antivirus attacked the same folder at the same time? What if there are several thousand files? In such a situation, even a powerful and modern computer can become thoughtful and sweat a lot from such a load, and the old one will freeze completely :)
First of all, this problem is typical for the Downloads folder, into which everything is downloaded from the Internet, but you just can’t get around to sorting it out. Thanks to automatic detection For some reason, the contents of the Downloads folder are of the Images type by default. It is better to address the question “why is this so” to the developers, and we will better answer the question “How to fix it.”
How to speed up opening a slow folder?
When you know where exactly the setting is stored, solving the problem looks like a piece of cake. First, select the problematic folder, such as Downloads. If you have several such folders, then select the parent directory that combines them.
When you have decided on the folder, right-click on it or free space inside it and select Properties.
In the Settings tab, in the “What type of folder do you need?” section. immediately below the point Optimize this folder There is a drop-down list with content types.
Select Common Elements. Additionally, you can check the box just below Apply the same template to all subfolders. Click OK.
Changes must take effect immediately. Go to your current folder and update it using F5 or log in again. The problem should go away.
Did the article help resolve the issue with hanging folders? Share in the comments.
Surely you may have noticed that some folders in Explorer (or in another program that shows the contents of disks) take a very long time to open. You launch Explorer like this, select required disk, you double-click on the folder, but it is empty. And only after a few seconds the first files and folders begin to appear, but not all at once. Sometimes this takes up to 10-15 seconds. This is especially true for folders that are frequently used (for example, the Downloads folder). How to get rid of this tedious waiting once and for all?
Why does Explorer take a long time to open folders?
To understand the reasons for this, let's look “under the hood” of the operating system and see how it shows the contents of folders in Explorer.
After double-clicking on a folder, you do not immediately gain access to it. First of all, an antivirus is activated, which checks all content for viruses. If an infected file is detected during the scanning process, it is automatically quarantined and you will see a corresponding notification.
Then the Explorer itself comes into play and begins reading the data from the scanned files and displaying them on the screen. If the folder contains large files (photos or videos), then Explorer also creates/updates thumbnails for them so that you can see the contents of the files directly in the list without opening them in the corresponding program.
The presence of a huge number of small files in folders increases the waiting time especially significantly. In this case, the antivirus and Explorer can take a very long time to analyze the data.
And only after all this does Explorer give you permission to start working with the data in the folder.
How to deal with this?
To fix this problem you need to follow three fairly simple steps.
1. Add folders to antivirus exceptions
Thus, the antivirus will simply ignore the contents of such folders.
That being said, there are a few critical things to understand about some folders.
"Downloads". Scanning this folder with an antivirus is simply vital. It is a kind of “quarantine zone” through which files get from the network to the computer. Accordingly, there may be dangerous objects that can harm your data. For example, a Trojan will end up on your computer along with a program downloaded from Vareznik.
There is no need to include the “Downloads” folder in antivirus exceptions.
"Photos"/"Music"/"Video". Collections that are many years old and are updated with new data quite rarely (and when downloaded, the files still end up in “Downloads” and are scanned) can be completely excluded from antivirus scanning. This will speed up opening the folder.
Virtual machines. If you work with virtual machines, then it would be a good idea to also add folders with images virtual machines in antivirus exceptions. This will speed up working with them, since these files are incredibly huge and take a particularly long time to scan.
2. Disable thumbnails in Explorer for folders with a lot of data
To do this, simply switch Explorer's View section to List or Table view.
This will disable thumbnails and files/folders will appear in Explorer without any additional delay.
3. Divide large folders into several small ones
By dividing large folders into several small ones, you can also speed up the display of the folder's contents in Explorer. Of course, this will not give a huge acceleration, but it will still speed up the display process to some extent. The less data there is to analyze, the faster the antivirus will check it, and the Explorer will display it.
For example, you can move unused files/folders to the “Archive” subfolder, and leave only data for current work in the main folder. In addition to speeding up, this also simplifies working with documents.
Microsoft strongly recommends that users upgrade to the Windows 10 operating system, which has many advantages over previous versions. But we should not forget about the shortcomings, of which there are more than enough in the new OS of the American corporation. One of Windows problems 10 is slow loading of directories. Folders can take a long time to open even on the most modern computers, and the point here is not at all in the hardware, as many people think, but in the features of the operating system.
Why do folders take a long time to open on Windows 10?
In the operating room Windows system Vista introduced the Automatic Folder Type Discovery function, which is required to analyze the contents of a folder and adapt the display of files based on the data received; it migrated to Windows 10. In simpler terms, all files in the operating system can be divided into several types. According to Microsoft, users should store music in one folder, videos in another, and so on. In practice, a small number of users actually act this way, and the above function determines the file type incorrectly, which is why problems arise with long loading times for the folder.
Each of the file types in separate folder has its own parameters that the operating system seeks to scan in order to display them for the convenience of the user. In total, Windows provides optimization for 4 types of files with the following display parameters:
- “Video”: name, date, type, size, duration;
- “Music”: name, track number, title, artist, album;
- “Images”: name, date, type, size, tags;
- “Documents”: name, modification date, type, size.
The Automatic Folder Type Discovery utility analyzes files in a folder, offering users file optimization based on the data obtained. However, if, for example, the “Downloads” folder stores all types of files, and it is optimized for “Music”, the operating system seeks to obtain parameters from the files to fill in the corresponding columns. This takes a lot of time, as a result of which the folder takes a long time to open, since the system has to analyze each file for the presence of “Song Number”, “Artist”, “Album” and others, which they may not have.
If a folder is not automatically optimized for the files that are stored in it, loading it may take from a few seconds to several minutes, depending on the amount of data in it. In such a situation, it is recommended to disable the Automatic Folder Type Discovery feature for a specific folder, which every user can do.
How to fix long folder loading times
Since Automatic Folder Type Discovery works without problems in most cases, it is not recommended to disable it completely by changing registry settings. It is better to disable it for specific folders where all the “garbage” is dumped without sorting. This is done as follows:
Important: If the folder contains other folders that do not need to be optimized using Automatic Folder Type Discovery, you can immediately apply the assigned actions to them by checking the “Apply the same template to all subfolders” checkbox.
We encountered such a not very common PC ailment. The machine slows down wildly, and not only works slowly - opening documents or launching applications takes half a minute. At the same time running applications They work quickly. Freezing occurs precisely at the moment of opening files (documents, executable ones - it doesn’t matter which ones).
This behavior is most often typical for a computer that has survived some kind of cataclysm. A cataclysm can be a virus infection, the consequences of viruses, the consequences of a global system failure or incorrect transfer of the OS or part of it. However, in all these cases there is one radical cure: system rollback (restoring from a save point). What if not?
In the case we encountered, rolling back the Windows state did not help. Another symptom of the problem was identified: it is tied to the network. We pull out network cable or turn it off network adapter(or disconnect from the network if we use wireless network- in general, we break the connection) - the problem disappears. Files open fine. We turn on the network - everything returns to normal.
If everything looks exactly as described above, then the PC is trying to restore communication with an unavailable resource. And we're not talking about inaccessible network drive, but about a network resource accessed by some program.
To solve the problem, you need to calculate this resource and stop the system from accessing it.
How to do this? There are two ways.
Method one– use a program like TCPview. This method is suitable if your PC is yours, you know it well and have an idea of what all the programs and services do, but there are few local resources. But what if you see a PC for the first time in your life, several people are working on it, and none of them knows the situation with software in general, and the local area is huge? It’s not a fact that monitoring will help.
So it’s better to solve the problem radically - go to the registry.
So, let's launch regedit and find the Applications section in HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT. The path to the folder in which the program is installed is indicated in the command section; the path to the section itself may vary.
If the path begins with a call to local disk, for example, looks like C:\Program Files\And so on\, we do not pay attention to it. If we see a path starting with a pair of slashes (like “\\Buhgalter\Shared Files\Superprogramma.exe”), then we check the availability of the resource. In this case, type \\Buhgalter\Shared Files\ into the Run line (or into the browser line, or into the address bar of Explorer) and see if the folder opens.
When we find a program that accesses an inaccessible resource, we remove it. If it has already been deleted, but some pieces of it remain in the system, delete the entire section related to the program.
After removing all programs, the brakes will stop.
Instructions
We will perform Disk Cleanup and clear the system of “garbage”. Let's launch standard program cleaning.
For Windows 7: "Start -> All Programs -> Accessories -> System Tools -> Disk Cleanup" (right click ->
For Windows XP: "Start -> All Programs -> Accessories -> System Tools -> Disk Cleanup"
If you have more than one installed on your computer hard drives(or one is divided into several logical ones), then a window will appear asking which of these disks to clean. Select the desired system drive on which WINDOWS is installed. (Then it is better to carry out this procedure with all computer disks).
Check the boxes for all the items suggested in the box, click “OK” - and wait. You may have to wait a long time, depending on how dirty the system is
Now let's check hard drive computer for errors and failures. First close all running programs and remove all external media (flash drives, hard drives, etc.). For Windows XP and Windows 7, the procedure will be the same.
Open the “My Computer” window in Explorer. Right-click on the system disk or partition of this disk and select “Properties”. In the window that opens, go to the “Service” tab, and there click on the “Run check” button. A small window will open in which you need to check the boxes for the 2 check points presented and click the “Launch” button.
A message will appear stating that Windows cannot check the disk that is currently in use and will prompt you to do so after rebooting. Click "Schedule Check Disk" for Windows 7 and "Yes" for Windows XP. Restart your computer. After the reboot, the scheduled disk check will begin in text mode. Until it completes, the operating system will not start. The scan will most likely take a long time, so it would be more advisable to run it at a time when the computer is not needed (for example, leave it checked overnight).
The next step will be to defragment the system disk. We launch a standard disk defragmentation program.
For Windows 7: "Start -> All Programs -> Accessories -> System Tools -> Disk Defragmenter" (right click -> "Run as administrator").
For Windows XP: "Start -> All Programs -> Accessories -> System Tools -> Disk Defragmenter"
In the window that opens, select the disk on which the operating system is installed and click on the “Disk Defragmentation” button. (Then it is better to carry out this procedure with all computer disks).
Now let's play around with the size of the paging file.
For Windows XP: "Right click on My Computer -> Properties -> Advanced -> Performance -> Options -> Advanced -> Virtual Memory -> Change."
For Windows 7: "Right click on Computer -> Properties -> Additional options-> Performance -> Settings -> Advanced -> Virtual memory -> Change."
In the window that opens, select “Specify size” (“Special size” for XP)
Now the entire volume of your RAM multiply by 1.5 (if it is very small, then by 2). We write the resulting value in the fields "Original size" and " Maximum size"
(And as an exception, if the computer has 4 gigabytes of RAM and Windows XP is installed, then you can set a small value, for example 512 megabytes)
Disable unused services. "Start -> Control Panel -> Administrative Tools -> Services." In this large list of all services, we study the names and descriptions of all services. We decide that all of this can be disabled without damaging the state of the system. (Specific advice on the advisability of disabling a particular service can be easily found on the Internet). Stop the selected services (double-click on the selected service “Startup type -> Disabled” and click on the “Stop” button)
Disable unused startup items. First, let's go to "Start -> All Programs -> Startup" and remove all unused shortcuts from there. Then run the standard system startup setup program: “Start -> Run” and write “msconfig” in the line, go to the “Startup” tab and disable all unused programs. (You can easily find specific advice on the advisability of disabling a particular program in startup on the Internet by entering the name of the program in a search engine)
Let's turn it off visual effects.
For Windows XP: "Right click on My Computer -> Properties -> Advanced -> Performance -> Options -> Visual Effects."
For Windows 7: "Right click on Computer -> Properties -> Advanced Settings -> Performance -> Options -> Visual Effects."
In the window that opens, switch the item “Ensure the best performance” -> OK
Disable unused devices.
For Windows XP: "Right click on My Computer -> Properties -> Hardware -> Device Manager."
For Windows 7: "Start -> Control Panel -> Hardware and Sound -> Device Manager"
In the window that opens, disable unused devices (right-click on the selected item -> "Disable")
You can turn off unused cameras, network card, IEEE 1394 controller, COM and LPT ports, etc. If something happens, a disabled device can always be “used” if needed
We clean your computer from viruses using an antivirus with up-to-date antivirus databases. You can use both permanently installed anti-virus programs and free “one-time” ones for routine scanning, such as CureIT from Dr. Web,
Video on the topic
Do not store large amounts of data on the “desktop”; in most cases, this consumes RAM resources, which in turn leads to a slowdown of the computer. It’s better to transfer the information somewhere to “logical” drives or delete it altogether if it is not particularly valuable. Ideally, only shortcuts to folders and frequently used programs should remain on the desktop.
Probably the most common and most annoying problem that occurs with a computer for users is its freezing, which often has no apparent reason. In this regard, both experienced and novice users are constantly racking their brains over how to eliminate the unreasonable freezing of the computer and return it to stable operation. There can be many reasons for freezing, and in this article you will learn about some of them, as well as how to fix them.
Instructions
Go to Start > Run and type msconfig in the window. In the window that opens, open the “Advanced” tab and disable fast system shutdown. If fast shutdown was otherwise disabled, try enabling it. In the same window, in the “Startup” section, uncheck those programs that you do not need to autostart the system.
Open the system.ini file and add the following parameter in the section: PagingFile=C:WINDOWSwin386.swp.
It is possible that the cause of the freeze is your antivirus program. Try changing your antivirus and see if the system freeze continues.
Program crash
Sometimes the following situation occurs: you launch a program, and it stops responding to your actions, not responding to button presses and mouse clicks. You can forcefully terminate a faulty program: help will come combination Ctrl+Alt+Delete or Ctrl+Shift+Esc. In the list that appears, select the problematic application and click “End task”.
If a program freezes regularly, it is better to install it new version or completely refuse in favor of a similar one.
Extra files
The operation of the operating system leads to the formation of many temporary files. Unnecessary information is filled in and system registry. All of these can also cause your computer to freeze.
To clean your PC from “garbage”, for example, CCleaner program. It is convenient, easy to use and allows you to quickly get rid of unnecessary data that slows down your work.
Video on the topic
If you don't pay enough attention to your computer, sooner or later it will start to slow down. Sluggishness refers to all sorts of freezes and system crashes when using a PC. Fixing this problem will only require a little effort and patience.
Software part
In most cases, the computer starts to slow down due to problems and glitches in its software. The following tips will help you troubleshoot problems:
Contain hard drive clean - it is not recommended to install all the software on a PC (you need to install on the computer only those programs that you use);
- remove unnecessary programs and games - it is worth carefully analyzing the list of programs on your PC and removing those that you did not install (perhaps they were installed automatically when using the Internet);
- clean the registry of the operating system - after cleaning the PC, you should deal with the registry (this can be done using large number specialized utilities, for example, CCleaner);
- remove unnecessary programs from startup (the same CCleaner utility will help you with this);
- defragment hard drives, do this at least once a month (this way all files will be well organized and the computer will work faster);
- free up space on your hard drive – on system disk The computer must have at least 5 GB of free space (this is necessary for the correct operation of the operating system and installed programs);
- disable visual effects that add beauty to the operating system (these are all kinds of shadow effects, minimizing windows, beautiful icons and frames).
Viruses
Due to virus infection, your computer will slow down or work incorrectly. Viruses can take up PC processor time, and there will not be enough of it to run the operating system or programs. Of course, it would be easy to purchase a licensed antivirus program. But not everyone can afford this pleasure, so you have to use it free analogues well-known branded antivirus applications. Or free utilities.
If viruses are detected and you are absolutely sure of their presence, it is easier to reinstall the operating system while formatting the infected partition. You can also remove the hard drive and, for a fee, clean it of viruses in a specialized center or from a friend who has a licensed anti-virus program.
Technical part
The computer may slow down due to severe contamination and dust on its internal parts and components. In this case, you need to carefully disassemble the PC and carefully clean all visible dust spots with a small brush. Depending on the performance and specifics of the computer, it is sometimes necessary on the processor and video card. If you have knowledge of this, you can start replacing the cooling paste yourself, but otherwise this work should be entrusted to a specialist.
Computer freezes can be caused by different actions user. For example, when one antivirus program is running (scanning), the user begins to perform another action that requires system resources. Freezing of a personal computer can be directly related to a large amount of malicious software. software, which is located on the computer, etc.
Task Manager
Of course, first of all you need to calm down and not press the mouse on the screen, buttons on the keyboard, etc. The first solution to such a problem is to use the task manager. There are several ways to open it. For example, this can be done by right-clicking on the arrow located in the lower right corner of the screen. Another way is to use computer hotkeys. To open the task manager, press Ctrl+Alt+Del simultaneously, after which a new window will appear.
You can disable a frozen program in the “Applications” tab. To determine which program you need, look at its status. If it says that the program is “Not responding,” then feel free to select it and click on the “End task” button. After this, a window will appear where you need to confirm your action. In the task manager, the user can disable various processes (the “Processes” tab), which also load the system.
It should be noted that the most important thing here is not to disable unknown program, since this tab displays and system processes, the disabling of which can lead to irreparable consequences. Most problems can be solved using the Task Manager.
Reset button
Of course, it may also happen that personal computer the user will freeze so that even the task manager will not open, or everything will work too slowly. There is also a way out of this situation, but it will not be the best and should be resorted to only in the most as a last resort. Today, almost every power supply has a computer reset button (usually it is located next to the power button and slightly smaller than it). When you click this button, the computer will automatically restart, but in this case all unsaved data will be lost.
Video on the topic
