Windows Explorer is extremely slow, or at times, unresponsive.

I was wondering if anybody could help me out. I have an HP Pavillion dv6 running MS Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit (upgraded from factory's Windows Vista). Intel Core 2 Duo @ 2.10 GHz. 4GB of RAM and a 320GB Hard Drive. I'll start by outlining the problems that occur. Windows Explorer (in my opinion) seems corrupted somehow. For example, I would try to delete a certain file from my desktop, and the window would pop up that states that the item is recycling. However, it would just say calculating and never actually delete the file. Another example would be when I'm exploring files in my computer. The path bar at the top (which usually has a green bar that indicates the page contents are loading) will take forever to load, and would never reach the end. Another problem that may or not be related has to do with AVG free. I would run a full computer scan, and it would come up with 4 infections that could NEVER be quarantined, because the size is too large. Malwarebytes does not find the same infections, which makes me think that they are false-positives. Programs take forever to get started, even when the process is active and taking up memory. I have tried using system restore to an earlier point, but that did not work, so I did a "forward?" system restore back to the latest system image.

I have already tried the following,

• system restores
• AVG 8 free, whole computer scans (result is 4 infections that can't be quarantined. I think the file path is in C:/SWSetup/MSDVD and the files are .cab's)
• Malwarebytes Anti-malware scans (all clean)
• CCleaner registry cleaner and disk cleanup
• Defraggler defragmentation

Any suggestions as what I should do? Are there any good free programs that scan Windows for corrupt files? Should I just backup my computer and re-install Windows 7?

you could try CTRL-ALt-Del and check via task manager to see what is eating your resources..

something's chuggin' somewhere..

I had to dump avg because of its memory consumption. I too was getting slow response in explorer...When I Ctrl+alt+del svchost which improved greatly when I uninstalled avg and installed avast also free. After unistalling avg i would use ccleaner to make sure its gone from the system before installing avast. Also have you tried to scan in safe mode? What files is it telling you is infected? Google the filename and see i its something you can live without, boot into safe mode and uninstalled the program its associated with. If its not associated with a program then find it on the hd and manually delete it in safemode.

When I scanned my computer in safe mode, there were no infections. Everything was slightly faster as well, however, files still couldn't be deleted and it took me forever to navigate through windows explorer. I checked the hp sight, and saw some update drivers for the BIOS and other stuff, so i will try that out when the sfc scan is done. AVG tasks have been completely stopped, but the problem still remains with windows explorer. If the scan comes back with something, that will be good. If not, I will try the updates. If all else fails, it will be time to reinstall windows 7. Thanks everybody for your help!

GuitarMetal said:

Windows Explorer (in my opinion) seems corrupted somehow. For example, I would try to delete a certain file from my desktop, and the window would pop up that states that the item is recycling. However, it would just say calculating and never actually delete the file. Another example would be when I'm exploring files in my computer. The path bar at the top (which usually has a green bar that indicates the page contents are loading) will take forever to load, and would never reach the end.

Guitar, I am experiencing a very similar problem:-
Possible Processor or HDD problem?

Just for your info, a clean install DID NOT seem to rectify this problem.

Hopefully, between the two threads, we'll get to the bottom of this.