Tip: Run a free scan for common Windows errors ad

re: Windows Explorer slow Saturday, August 30, 2003 at 11:26 am Posted by GrillMaster (7 messages posted) Well there are several things you can do that may help. Here is a couple (not in any particualr order). 1. remove any unnecessary files, copy them to CD or Floppy if you may need them later. 2. Depending on total Hard drive space you may need to clean up your hard drive by removing other unnecessary programs or files (this is good in general) 3. You may be straining your graphics card/on board memory because of all the icons needed to open, so you can switch to view files as a list or maybe details instead of icons or tiles. 4. You might try increasing internal memory if your system can be upgraded. 5. More involved but beneficial in the long run, is upgrading your hard drive. Look for faster speed 7200 RPM as opposed to 5400 RPM. 6. You may have excess programs running in the background. Instant messengers, email programs, etc. Any programs that periodically check your computer like automatic updates and Anti-virus software settings could be slowing you down, having sotware like that check all files and programs as opposed to just executables will slow down your system in general. There are countless other possibilities, but it depends on your system, more detail about it are needed. Saturday, August 30, 2003 at 9:56 am, Clark wrote: >I have over 300 folders totaling 400 mb in my "My Documents" folder. When I work >on files in there it really bogs down opening folders. Any ideas how I can speed >things up? Thanks. [Reply or follow-up to this message] re: Windows Explorer slow Saturday, August 30, 2003 at 11:47 am Posted by Clark (26 messages posted) Thanks Grillmaster. I will give some of your cheaper solutions a try. My computer is 5 years old so I am just trying to limp by as I am sure it will need replacing any day. On Saturday, August 30, 2003 at 11:26 am, GrillMaster wrote: >Well there are several things you can do that may help. Here is a couple (not in >any particualr order). > >1. remove any unnecessary files, copy them to CD or Floppy if you may need them later. > >2. Depending on total Hard drive space you may need to clean up your hard drive >by removing other unnecessary programs or files (this is good in general) > >3. You may be straining your graphics card/on board memory because of all the icons >needed to open, so you can switch to view files as a list or maybe details instead >of icons or tiles. > >4. You might try increasing internal memory if your system can be upgraded. > >5. More involved but beneficial in the long run, is upgrading your hard drive. >Look for faster speed 7200 RPM as opposed to 5400 RPM. > >6. You may have excess programs running in the background. Instant messengers, >email programs, etc. Any programs that periodically check your computer like automatic >updates and Anti-virus software settings could be slowing you down, having sotware >like that check all files and programs as opposed to just executables will slow down >your system in general. > >There are countless other possibilities, but it depends on your system, more detail >about it are needed. > >Saturday, August 30, 2003 at 9:56 am, Clark wrote: >I have over 300 folders totaling 400 mb in my "My Documents" folder. When I work >on files in there it really bogs down opening folders. Any ideas how I can speed >things up? Thanks. [Reply or follow-up to this message] re: Windows Explorer slow Saturday, August 30, 2003 at 11:49 pm Posted by JmC (14166 messages posted) This stuff works: Windows 98 Explorer Extremely Slow JmC On Saturday, August 30, 2003 at 9:56 am, Clark wrote: >I have over 300 folders totaling 400 mb in my "My Documents" folder. When I work >on files in there it really bogs down opening folders. Any ideas how I can speed >things up? Thanks. [Reply or follow-up to this message] re: Windows Explorer slow Sunday, August 31, 2003 at 12:07 am Posted by GrillMaster (7 messages posted) I just noticed I forgot to mention after you take off some of the files, you should defrag your hard drive and run scan disk. Scan disk will find some of the files that may be unnecessary. Also right click on your hard drive in "My Computer" and click on properties, then clean disk. This will allow you to clean off unnecessary temporary files. Defrag if you don not know is the electronic equivalent of sorting files in a cabinet. It doesn't order your files alphabetically, but sorts them so the computer can find them faster. One last thing, since you say your computer is 5 years old, likely your drive is "small" I'm guessin 4 GB or less, so definitely with 400 MB you likely have over half your drive full. If you near less than 25% youer sysytem will drag. I have had some older computers give me errors and lock up because they were running out of space to store temporary Windows files, you should have at least 500MB free space, you can get away with less, but it will cause problems and require mre frequent cleanup. On Saturday, August 30, 2003 at 11:47 am, Clark wrote: >Thanks Grillmaster. I will give some of your cheaper solutions a try. My computer >is 5 years old so I am just trying to limp by as I am sure it will need replacing >any day. > [Reply or follow-up to this message] re: Windows Explorer slow Sunday, August 31, 2003 at 8:06 am Posted by Clark (26 messages posted) Thanks again. I have a 6 gig with 2 gig free space. JmC replied to my post also. Feel free to check his response. It looks like a great solution. Too lengthy to describe here, he provides a link. I just hope this stone-age computer of mine keeps on ticking. lol I bought in Sept. '99, was a model on the shelf for 1-year prior to that, aptiva E series 240 On Sunday, August 31, 2003 at 12:07 am, GrillMaster wrote: >I just noticed I forgot to mention after you take off some of the files, you should >defrag your hard drive and run scan disk. Scan disk will find some of the files >that may be unnecessary. Also right click on your hard drive in "My Computer" and >click on properties, then clean disk. This will allow you to clean off unnecessary >temporary files. Defrag if you don not know is the electronic equivalent of sorting >files in a cabinet. It doesn't order your files alphabetically, but sorts them so >the computer can find them faster. One last thing, since you say your computer is >5 years old, likely your drive is "small" I'm guessin 4 GB or less, so definitely >with 400 MB you likely have over half your drive full. If you near less than 25% >youer sysytem will drag. I have had some older computers give me errors and lock >up because they were running out of space to store temporary Windows files, you should >have at least 500MB free space, you can get away with less, but it will cause problems >and require mre frequent cleanup. > > > [Reply or follow-up to this message] re: Windows Explorer slow Sunday, August 31, 2003 at 8:52 am Posted by Clark (26 messages posted) Thanks JmC, I am going to give it a try later today. I guess the other option would be to simply use a filing system in folders created by me and simply don't use 'my documents'. On Saturday, August 30, 2003 at 11:49 pm, JmC wrote: > > > >This stuff works: color='orange'>Windows 98 Explorer Extremely Slow > > > > JmC > > > > > > [Reply or follow-up to this message] re: Windows Explorer slow Monday, September 1, 2003 at 12:09 pm Posted by Clark (26 messages posted) JmC, I tried to find the desktop.ini file in 'my documents' but was unable to locate. I followed the instructions that your link took me to. I was hoping you might have another solution. Thanks in advance. Your help is very appreciated. Clark On Saturday, August 30, 2003 at 11:49 pm, JmC wrote: > > > >This stuff works: color='orange'>Windows 98 Explorer Extremely Slow > > > > JmC > > > > > > [Reply or follow-up to this message] re: Windows Explorer slow Monday, September 1, 2003 at 9:56 pm Posted by JmC (14166 messages posted) Windows 98 Explorer Extremely Slow Since this deals with the Desktop.ini file located in the 'My Documents' folder that is a hidden file, you may need 'Show all Files' enabled in Folder Options. Click START, move to 'Settings' and then click 'Folder Options...'. Next click the 'View' tab, drill down to the 'Files and Folders' section and be sure 'Show all Files' is selected. If it needs to be changed, be sure to click 'Apply' and then 'OK'. Click START, move to FIND and click 'FILES OR FOLDERS'. Type 'DESKTOP.INI' in the 'Named' box with the 'Look in:' box set to your 'C:\>' (host) drive and press enter. Next from the list that appears, locate the 'Desktop.ini' file located in the 'My Documents' folder. Click on it to open it in Note Pad, or your default text editor. The contents of the file will look like the listing below. Now clear the contents so it is blank. Next click 'File' and then 'Save' on the toolbar. Close the text editor and return to the open 'Find' window. Right click the same 'DESKTOP.INI' file and select 'Properties' from the menu. All of the attributes should be checked except 'Read-only'. Check the 'Read-only' box so that all four attributes are selected. Click 'Apply' and then close the properties window. [.ShellClassInfo] CLSID2={450d8fba-ad25-11d0-98a8-0800361b1103} InfoTip=Stores your documents, graphics, and other files. ConfirmFileOp=0 [{A4839F80-B9E0-11D5-9AB6-DD3966CFEC07}] ID2=47A920 [ExtShellFolderViews] If for some reason you want to reverse this change, repeat the procedure to change the 'Read-only' attributes. When you uncheck 'Read-only' and then 'Apply', Windows will restore the Desktop.ini to the default settings that were removed. JmC [Reply or follow-up to this message] re: Windows Explorer slow Thursday, September 18, 2003 at 3:21 pm Posted by Russell Stevenson (1 messages posted) I experienced the very same problems. Forget the long winded and complicated solutions, use this quicker and easier solution. Create a new folder called for example ‘My Docs’ and then transfer all of the documents from ‘My Documents’ into it. Then leave the ‘My Documents’ folder to languish empty forevermore. This works and it is so easy. Rus [Reply or follow-up to this message] re: Windows Explorer slow Monday, December 15, 2003 at 6:06 am Posted by David (2 messages posted) Many Many thanks for posting this solution for windows explorer going slow! I cleared the content of desktop.ini and made it read-only. This has solved the problem, which was more than a major pain on my Win98 laptop. So again: Many many thanks. Your help is very very much appreciated. Wishing you a merry Christmas and all the very best for 2004! Cheers, David [Reply or follow-up to this message] re: Windows Explorer slow Wednesday, August 16, 2006 at 8:24 pm Posted by CnlMustard (1 messages posted) You magnificent SOB!!!!!!!!!!!! I've tried to fix this problem for at five years now! I even started preparing to dump Windows and go to Linux! Your fix lets me smile at my PC again, thanks, thanks, thanks! On Monday, September 1, 2003 at 9:56 pm, JmC wrote: href="http://the-it-mercenary.com/forums/Help/posts/8929.html">Windows >98 Explorer Extremely Slow > > Since this deals with the Desktop.ini file located in the 'My Documents' folder >that is a hidden file, you may need 'Show all Files' enabled in Folder Options. Click >START, move to 'Settings' and then click 'Folder Options...'. Next click the 'View' >tab, drill down to the 'Files and Folders' section and be sure 'Show all Files' is >selected. If it needs to be changed, be sure to click 'Apply' and then 'OK'. > > Click START, move to FIND and click 'FILES OR FOLDERS'. Type 'DESKTOP.INI' in >the 'Named' box with the 'Look in:' box set to your 'C:\>' (host) drive and press >enter. > > Next from the list that appears, locate the 'Desktop.ini' file located in the >'My Documents' folder. Click on it to open it in Note Pad, or your default text editor. >The contents of the file will look like the listing below. Now clear the contents >so it is blank. Next click 'File' and then 'Save' on the toolbar. Close the text >editor and return to the open 'Find' window. Right click the same 'DESKTOP.INI' file >and select 'Properties' from the menu. All of the attributes should be checked except >'Read-only'. Check the 'Read-only' box so that all four attributes are selected. >Click 'Apply' and then close the properties window. > >[.ShellClassInfo] >CLSID2={450d8fba-ad25-11d0-98a8-0800361b1103} >InfoTip=Stores your documents, graphics, and other files. >ConfirmFileOp=0 > >[{A4839F80-B9E0-11D5-9AB6-DD3966CFEC07}] >ID2=47A920 > >[ExtShellFolderViews] > > If for some reason you want to reverse this change, repeat the procedure to change >the 'Read-only' attributes. When you uncheck 'Read-only' and then 'Apply', Windows >will restore the Desktop.ini to the default settings that were removed. :) [Reply or follow-up to this message] Tip: Use one of the [Reply or follow-up to this message] links above to add a message to this thread Search this forum Start a new thread on a different subject Report abuse of the forum Return to the Windows 98 Discussion Forum