Windows 7 and slow loading of folders (question)

from Elemental Forums

I'm not overly familiar with Windows 7 yet, so looking for a bit of help here.

When I open a folder in the file explorer, the contents show immediately, but the address bar (that shows the current path) is underlayed with a green progress bar that slowly fills. Until it is full (and some time after) and disappears, I cannot sort or access the files in this particular file explorer window. What exactly is the OS doing here and how can it be turned off?

In a folder with 200+ files (many of which are archives) this can take up to two minutes, which is a little bothersome. Is it scanning the archives? Scanning the files for viruses? (I see no such option in the Security Essentials.)

Thanks for any pointers. :)

56,249 views 4 replies
Reply #2 from WinCustomize Forums Top

Hi Mivo,

In the Control Panel, click on Indexing Options and you can select the options you want.  For example, I index Users (but exclude App Data), Start Menu, Windows Live Mail and Internet Explorer History.  You can click Modify to include additional folders if needed including the folder that opens slowly OR click on the folders that are indexed to make see if the slow folder is listed.  If it is on the list but not checked, just put a check mark next to it.  You can also click on Advanced and rebuild the index or change the location of it and/or click on File Types to index specific types of files such as bat, jpeg, gif, etc.  Do not index the entire hard drive or your system will slow to a crawl.  Hope this helps a little.  :sun:

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Reply #3 from Elemental Forums Top

Thank you both! I'm going to give this a try and see how it works. :)

Reply #4 from Elemental Forums Top

Even if you don't specifically index that area, rebuilding your computer's index can help.  Especially if you see a few folders pop up then the load time, then the rest.