Slow opening Windows Explorer

Keano

More a nusiance than a problem but would be nice to get an answer.

In the last few weeks I have noticed that when I open Windows explorer, there is a delay. I thought nothing of it at the time, probably just a gremlin hang but now it is constant. Everytime I open explorer there is a about a 10 second delay (before it was instantaneous).

I am running XP Pro SP 2 and I have done all the virus/spyware scans and all is clear.

rrpc

Things that can slow explorer down:

Bad CD in the drive
Mapped network drive no longer available
Mapped network drive, but network PC in sleep mode or bad connection.
Faulty drive either external or internal

The list goes on.....:)

Keano

Standard Toaster

You can use Sysinternals Process Explorer to find out what casuing the delay.
Good guide to it here from Mark Russinovich himself:

http://blogs.technet.com/markrussinovich/archive/2006/11/27/532465.aspx

Unless you know what to look out for it can be a tricky one to troubleshoot.
rrpc may be on the right track.

rrpc

Sorry, thought of another one.

A malfunctioning explorer shell extension may also cause the problem. This would be something like a virus scanner adding a 'scan here' item to the right-click menu in explorer, or an extra toolbar item etc.

Some of these extensions can have an online function in that they check a server somewhere and this could delay explorer starting.

Standard Toaster

Aye, use a tool like shexview from http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/shexview.html to disable them one at a time.