Windows explorer GUI lag - much slower than XP

[alizarin]

Explorer in Windows 7 seems to have a lag for any gui operation:

* Selecting different files buy just moving with the arrow keys
* Selecting files
* Dragging a file to drop into a folder

That kind of thing was more or less instantaneous in XP but there's a couple second lag in Windows 7.

Is there something I'm missing to turn off to speed it up again?

I tried turning off Aero, the panes, etc but no change.

 

[torrentg]

Update your chipset and/or graphics card drivers.

 

[alizarin]

Update your chipset and/or graphics card drivers.

I did update my drivers but that's not it - turning off aero would have sped it up or doing graphic intensive things in other apps would slow it down and it doesn't.

Windows 7 seems to be scanning the contents of everything as it gets selected or dragged over and I wanted to turn that off.

 

[torrentg]

Services.msc from the start menu search box. Hit enter.

Look for Windows Search service and disable it. Common practice amongst those in the know.

 

[alizarin]

That's not it... I'm sure that eats up CPU time but it has no effect on what I was describing.

Apparently Windows 7 is just written inefficiently in this regard. They focus on stuff that makes people say "that looks neat" when they're buying a PC at the expense of people who have to use it everyday efficiently. I installed a third party file manager and the problem doesn't happen there ("Free Commander" - the first free one I found for now).

Microsoft never ceases to amaze me in their crappitude.

 

[logicearth]

None of those problems on my old laptop from 2007.

Also disabling Aero if your computer can support it is not something you want. Maybe turning off transparency but not entirely Aero. What anti-virus are you using? And what Windows Explorer extensions have been installed?

 

[alizarin]

Tried turning off transparency - no effect. Tried turning EVERYTHING visual off and no effect. It's not a visual effects problem, it's explorer looking at whatever is selected and waiting for something.

If I watch the process list while moving the selected file up and down in a folder explorer.exe eats up allot of cpu cycles.

 

[logicearth]

It must be something installed. Because Windows Explorer does not "wait" for something, but third-party software does like an anti-virus or something that extends Explorer.

EDIT: You may what these two tools:
http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/shexview.html
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb963902.aspx

 

[torrentg]

Ya, as a 2nd machine, I have a 2001 P4 1.5 GHz single core, no hyperthreading with 768 MB RDRAM and it flies using 7. Off the top of my head, I'd say at least 20 percent increase in overall speed compared to XP. And XP on it was really good.

 

[Six9siX]

U need to set it in registry.
think default is 400
i set up all times to 100 it's now instant just like in xp

 

[gunjin]

Explorer in Windows 7 seems to have a lag for any gui operation:

* Selecting different files buy just moving with the arrow keys
* Selecting files
* Dragging a file to drop into a folder

That kind of thing was more or less instantaneous in XP but there's a couple second lag in Windows 7.

Is there something I'm missing to turn off to speed it up again?

I tried turning off Aero, the panes, etc but no change.

I was getting this sort of problem and reported it in this thread

The solution was a complete re-install and i was back to zippy preformance.

For a week.

my Explorer lag has now returned despite having installed nothing new. I also have a new netbook with loads of crapware pre-installed and it runs faster than my high-end desktop. I am wondering whether there is a memory leak somewhere in W7. It is incredibly frustrating.

 

[logicearth]

my Explorer lag has now returned despite having installed nothing new. I also have a new netbook with loads of crapware pre-installed and it runs faster than my high-end desktop. I am wondering whether there is a memory leak somewhere in W7. It is incredibly frustrating.

You installed nothing? Nothing at all, just a default installation for a whole week? What settings were changed? What tweaks applied? The reason why a reinstall brought it back to zippy performance is because what every was changed or installed was removed.

 

[gunjin]

You installed nothing? Nothing at all, just a default installation for a whole week? What settings were changed? What tweaks applied? The reason why a reinstall brought it back to zippy performance is because what every was changed or installed was removed.

i installed Office, Firefox, Nvidia drivers + my old docs (12gb of them) during the initial re-installation after which everything ran fine. The problem is that the lag has steadily got worse. Accessing the same folder a week ago was instant. Accessing it now takes at least a second and forces the swirling blue cursor image to appear. My question is what would cause it to get progressively worse over a period of time?

 

[torrentg]

You installed nothing? Nothing at all, just a default installation for a whole week? What settings were changed? What tweaks applied? The reason why a reinstall brought it back to zippy performance is because what every was changed or installed was removed.

i installed Office, Firefox, Nvidia drivers + my old docs (12gb of them) during the initial re-installation after which everything ran fine. The problem is that the lag has steadily got worse. Accessing the same folder a week ago was instant. Accessing it now takes at least a second and forces the swirling blue cursor image to appear. My question is what would cause it to get progressively worse over a period of time?

Possibly fragmentation of the HDD and MFT. Could try an offline defrag of the drives. O&O could do this with scheduler upon next reboot.

 

[gunjin]

i have not defragged but would be surprised if it was this. However, thanks for the O&O tip, am dl'ing their their defrag util now.

 

[torrentg]

You'd be surprised. In corporate environment, I've witnessed machines bsod simply because HDD was too fragmented. IT didn't want to listen to me, so I fixed machines myself for them. lol

 

[gunjin]

tried the complete offline defrag and that did not impact the explorer lag unfortunately....

 

[torrentg]

Then it's probably a software you installed along the way.

 

[gunjin]

Problem solved here

 

[alizarin]

Thanks *VERY* much gunjin - that's it - Kaspersky, although to be fair it seems that it's a problem of Microsoft that's breaking Kaspersky. There seems to be a solution on the Kaspersky Forums:

Temporarily disable Self Defense.

Disconnect from the internet, then Settings > Options > disable Self Defense > ok. Use Windows Explorer for a few minutes, then re -enable Self Defense >ok.
​

If that doesn't do it there are other threads on it.

Several people said that solved it for them.
I tried uninstalling Kaspersky and then reinstalling and rebooting and so far the problem isn't coming back.