Long time opening folders. Inexplicably long loading times for folders in Windows. How to solve the problem

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 the desired drive, double-click on the folder, but it’s 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 what is happening, let's look "under the hood" 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.

It is necessary to understand somewhat critically important points regarding 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 are working with virtual machines, then it wouldn’t hurt 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.

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 files. I have observed similar brakes when opening on various computers from our clients and more. 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 accumulated? In such a situation, even a powerful and modern computer he may become thoughtful and sweat a lot from such a load, but the old one will hang tightly :)

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.

Windows 10 has quite a few interesting features and quite a few problems that trouble users. Therefore, these problems need to be solved somehow, no matter what they are.

This article will talk about why folders take a long time to load in Windows 10. Most likely, I have encountered such a problem when you open a folder and a long loading time begins at the top. At the same time, no matter how powerful your computer is, cases have been observed on fairly powerful devices. Let's try to solve this problem.

Why do folders take a long time to load?

I want to say that this problem occurs not only in Windows 10, but also in early version OS. Through observation and analysis, it turned out that the problem occurs due to a feature that has been built into the system since the days of Windows Vista. This Explorer feature allows you to tell the system the types of files stored in this folder and subfolders. Thus, the system will know about the files, and if something happens, it will optimize them for launch by the user.

For some folders, the system optimizes in an asthmatic mode, no matter whether you asked it to do so or not. For example, for the folders Downloads, Videos, Documents, etc. In addition, Windows has the Automatic Folder Type Discovery function, which analyzes files, and then, based on these analyses, optimization is carried out. The feature is enabled by default.

As you already understand, the function, or rather its algorithm, is not entirely perfect, which is why such slowdowns occur when loading folders. It is not always possible to determine the type of files in a folder.

For example, some folder contains images or photos, and the system understands this. In this case, when you open a folder with photos or pictures, we will see the loading of thumbnails for each photo and picture. This will happen for a long time. Imagine that there are several thousand files there? I think you yourself understand what will happen.

I would like to note that the “Downloads” folder for the Automatic Folder Type Discovery utility is a tasty morsel. A varied number of files can be stored there, therefore, loading this folder can take several minutes, which is very annoying. And no matter how powerful your computer is, you will either have to be patient or try to solve the problem.

Fortunately, this feature can be disabled, which is what we will do now.

Disable or change folder optimization

First, you need to determine which folders are loading slowly. Most likely, there may not be many of them in the Automatic Folder Type Discovery utility, just a couple of them.

Now you need to go to the properties of this folder, right-click on it and select "Properties".

Now go to the tab "Settings" and there, in the drop-down menu "Optimize this folder" choose "Common Elements".

Just below we put a tick opposite "Apply this template to all subfolders". Once done, click apply and OK.

That's all, this should solve the problems with folders taking a long time to load. The instructions will work on Windows 7 and Windows 8, we use them.

Answers:

TU-154:
First, make sure that you do not have an anti-virus monitor running. If it works, turn it off.

Forward:
There may be several reasons. 1. Check if you have any startup unnecessary programs. 2. Check processes. 3. Possibly an antivirus monitor. Try disabling or unloading. 4. Check system files: Start - Run - sfc /scannow - OK. 5. Scan the system with your antivirus and antispyware Ad-Aware with fresh databases. 6. Try copying explorer.exe from a friend’s Windows folder and pasting it into yours (you may have to unload it). 7. Maybe the system spins the CD when accessing “My Computer”.

V0van:
Try disabling the Indexing service or simply uncheck the "Allow Indexing service to index this" checkbox separately disk for fast file searching" - only for NTFS partition. Perhaps one of the objects in the "my computer" container has an icon assigned third party program- and slows down because trying to read it. To speed up the operation of the XP System properties -> advanced -> interface in the Perfomance container, click Settings -> Visual effects -> just for best performance. And of course, check your antivirus monitor.

Railwayman:
Perhaps one of the drives (floppy/cd/dvd) is not working, or there is an unreadable disk/floppy disk in the drive. Usually in this case, part of the list from “My Computer” appears, after which the system waits for quite a long time for a response from the non-working device. You should also look at the list in the My Computer folder. If there are any links to network resources etc. - remove them from there.

Alexander:
I have the same problem. But I also don’t see devices in the device manager, and when I connect a flash drive, the tray icon doesn’t light up. Tried all of the above. Doesn't help.

Folder "Downloads" this is the default location to store downloaded files using all web browsers in the operating system Windows system 10. That is, when downloading a file from the Internet using any browser, the file is automatically saved in the Downloads folder.

If you use Windows 10 as your main operating system, then over the past couple of months, you most likely have accumulated hundreds of other files and programs in your “Downloads” folder. As a result, the Downloads folder in Windows 10 most likely opens much slower than after the first installation of the system.

Opening the Downloads Folder can take a long time, especially after you restart your computer or if you haven't accessed it for a long time.

To fix the problem, you can follow the guidelines below to open the Downloads folder as quickly as other folders on your computer.

How to fix slow opening of the Downloads folder?

Step 1: Open File Explorer Windows.

Step 2: IN navigation bar File Explorer, right-click the Downloads folder, and then click Properties.

Step 3: In folder properties, go to the tab Settings" by clicking on it.

Step 4: Under the line - " Optimize this folder", select from the drop-down menu - “ General elements" and check the box - " Apply the same template to all subfolders",see screenshot below.

As you'll notice, with default settings, Windows 10 treats the download folder as a photo folder and tries to create thumbnails for each file. In other words, by default the downloads folder is optimized for images rather than other file types.

Step 5: Click the button Apply." And restart your computer.

If you did everything correctly, the Downloads folder will open as quickly as other folders on your computer.