File Explorer Slow to Launch

[pilotpine]

I've been experiencing the rather puzzling problem of file explorer taking several seconds to open from the taskbar. Since I built this PC I've never had this issue and it has only appeared within the past few months, needless to say I am getting more and more frustrated with it recently. 

 

My troubleshooting and research done:

To start I have a SSD as my C drive, with a HDD for bulk storage. Nothing wrong here to my knowledge.  Next I thought It could have something to do with Microsoft lovely 'quick access' business, disabled everything I could and nothing. I then took to the internet to see if anyone else has ran into this problem along with a potential fix. I found some forums talking about the shortcut acting up, this led me to do everything from recreate the shortcut by recreating the target path to creating a 'This PC' shortcut. What I did discover from this exercise is all of these shortcuts execute instantly from the desktop or start menu, but if you want to launch from the task bar you may as well go make some coffee and a snack before returning. My research then led to indexing. After disabling all files for in the 'indexing options' menu I was very disappointed to find this fix in fact fixed nothing.

 

TLDR, File Explorer and I are not currently on good terms and I am hoping someone else has experienced this and/or knows a fix.

 

Cheers

[GoodBytes]

When this happens, typically, it is File Explorer is trying to connect somewhere.

Usually:

• File Explorer is waiting for an HDD to spin up to be accessed to show content from it (this includes pinned directories).
• File Explorer is waiting to establish a connection with a network share folder from a system that is not responding or slow to respond.
• Anti-Virus or other security software is slowing disk access. Assuming you are using something else than Windows Defender, uninstall it, restart, and see. 

Another possibility, is a what is called a "Shell extentions". While Windows doesn't have a management panel for them, like our web browser extentions, File Explorer does support this. It is called "Shell extension" as depending on the extension it can affect things outside of File Explorer itself. for example, Desktop right-click menu. If a program added a shell extension related to File Explorer, and it is not behaving right, then it could cause File Explorer to take time to load.

 

Here is a tool from Microsoft to view installed Shell Extensions on your system (among other things):

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/autoruns

Extract all files of the zip file, and run Autoruns64.exe as Administrator (elevated credentials). So right-click on it and pick: "Run as admin"

Inside, wait until it loads, and go to the "Explorer" tab.

 

You should only have items related to Microsoft Office and OneDrive on a Windows default installation + Office.

If you have an Nvidia GPU, you'll also have: NvCplDesktopContext listed there. That is the desktop shortcut menu item which can be disabled via Nvidia Control Panel. I believe AMD GPUs also have their own thing. If you uncheck an item, the extension will not be loaded next time (you'll need to restart to see affect). And you check it back again to enable it. If you delete it, then it is gone forever, and depending on what you delete, it can be pain to get back (example: uninstall and re-install Office).

[pilotpine]

On 7/27/2020 at 4:14 AM, GoodBytes said:

When this happens, typically, it is File Explorer is trying to connect somewhere.

Usually:

• File Explorer is waiting for an HDD to spin up to be accessed to show content from it (this includes pinned directories).
• File Explorer is waiting to establish a connection with a network share folder from a system that is not responding or slow to respond.
• Anti-Virus or other security software is slowing disk access. Assuming you are using something else than Windows Defender, uninstall it, restart, and see. 

Another possibility, is a what is called a "Shell extentions". While Windows doesn't have a management panel for them, like our web browser extentions, File Explorer does support this. It is called "Shell extension" as depending on the extension it can affect things outside of File Explorer itself. for example, Desktop right-click menu. If a program added a shell extension related to File Explorer, and it is not behaving right, then it could cause File Explorer to take time to load.

 

Here is a tool from Microsoft to view installed Shell Extensions on your system (among other things):

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/autoruns

Extract all files of the zip file, and run Autoruns64.exe as Administrator (elevated credentials). So right-click on it and pick: "Run as admin"

Inside, wait until it loads, and go to the "Explorer" tab.

 

You should only have items related to Microsoft Office and OneDrive on a Windows default installation + Office.

If you have an Nvidia GPU, you'll also have: NvCplDesktopContext listed there. That is the desktop shortcut menu item which can be disabled via Nvidia Control Panel. I believe AMD GPUs also have their own thing. If you uncheck an item, the extension will not be loaded next time (you'll need to restart to see affect). And you check it back again to enable it. If you delete it, then it is gone forever, and depending on what you delete, it can be pain to get back (example: uninstall and re-install Office).

This is a fantastic response. I am about to disable some things, restart and see if it helps. Two follow up questions if i may, first is there a good way to determine what each extension specifically does? I imagine that would come down to some digging on the internet to figure that out for each program. (For instance: I have four 7-Zip extensions "ContextMenuHandlers" "DragDropHandlers" some are duplicates with the difference being HKLM\Software\Classes\Folder\ShellEx\ContextMenuHandlers vs " * " or nothing at all) Second, you may have explained this already but how does this effect differ from launching something like File Explorer from the desktop vs the taskbar? My understanding from your explanation is that one form of Shell Extension is when you right click something and are presented with the option of performing a function via the program without actually launching it first. An example being my Bluebeam Revu PDF viewer. When right clicking I have the option to Open or do something like combine files all from that dialog. Interacting with something takes longer to process because it needs to go to other places to 'fetch' the options for how you can interact with it.

 

Is my understanding on the right track or flawed?

[pilotpine]

Update: I first tried disabling select extensions then all but the default windows extensions, and after restarting for both, unfortunately no change. File Explorer opens instantly from the desktop, very slightly slower from the start menu and about 1-2 seconds slower from the taskbar. I know having something open in a second vs instantly is trivial but it is frustrating when my far inferior work computer with a HDD and company antivirus software can open File Explorer instantly while my personal rig cannot. 

 

I can't understand how there is any difference launching the same shortcut from different areas can affect load time. I have a start menu shortcut which opens a file nested deep in my documents. It behaves the exact same way. 

 

My thought process:

1. If the shortcut was borked, launching from different locations would not affect load time (All would be slow). 

2. If Indexing, Quick Access, or Defender were the problem launching from different locations would not affect load time (All would be slow). 

3. If Windows by nature launched the same shortcut from different locations at the same speed, then It would be a similar phenomena across different machines, which I have not observed. They are both fundamentally doing the same thing are they not?

4. It has to be something else, like a graphics driver? But there isn't a special animation for opening from the taskbar. 

With my limited knowledge I am fully stumped.

 

What are your thoughts on this?

 

[GoodBytes]

2 hours ago, pilotpine said:

This is a fantastic response.

I forgot to mention, just for completion on what I said: A bad SATA cable can cause File Explorer to hang or be slow, as it is having trouble communicating with the connected drive.

 

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I am about to disable some things, restart and see if it helps. Two follow up questions if i may, first is there a good way to determine what each extension specifically does? I imagine that would come down to some digging on the internet to figure that out for each program. (For instance: I have four 7-Zip extensions "ContextMenuHandlers" "DragDropHandlers" some are duplicates with the difference being HKLM\Software\Classes\Folder\ShellEx\ContextMenuHandlers vs " * " or nothing at all)

I can't go over all the possibilities, they are a huge number of them, and things can also change between program configurations and version.

I don't know if what you mentioned is a problem or not. If the feature works, then one can assume it works. It is open source, and I trust someone would have noticed if something is not right.

 

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Second, you may have explained this already but how does this effect differ from launching something like File Explorer from the desktop vs the taskbar?

Not to my knowledge no. Unless File Explorer opens at different location.

But the speed difference you mentioned... If we are talking about fraction of seconds, then this is true that File Explorer takes a tad longer opening from the Start Menu quick action buttons (the ones above the Settings (gear) icon), but that is really because, on the Task Bars items on it opens the moment they are clicked on, while in the Start menu, these side items opens once the animation ends. (repeating the action will make SuperFetch kick in, and now it will be instant until your reboot or is a while) But the time difference should not be noticeable unless you are looking for it.

 

Now come to thing about it, if you have a GPU driver problem and the animation from the start menu takes much longer, then yes, I can see it being a problem. Does it look like the animation takes time?

 

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My understanding from your explanation is that one form of Shell Extension is when you right click something and are presented with the option of performing a function via the program without actually launching it first.

That is one of things it provides. Other possibilities are:

• Thumbnail preview for specific or series of file extentions.
• Preview Pane preview (or display additional information with without a preview)
• Detect drag-and-drop operations
• File metadata / Properties sheet (you know the page on the Properties panel on, say, an image, which shows you additional information about the image... yes, that is what I am talking about)
• Tooltip when you hover on a file
• Add additional Columns
• Add additional Search tags
• and probably other things that isn't coming to mind.
   

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An example being my Bluebeam Revu PDF viewer. When right clicking I have the option to Open or do something like combine files all from that dialog. Interacting with something takes longer to process because it needs to go to other places to 'fetch' the options for how you can interact with it.

Yup

Quote

Is my understanding on the right track or flawed?

Yup!

[GoodBytes]

2 hours ago, pilotpine said:

Update:

Oh noes! Now Windows will ask me to restart....

 

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I first tried disabling select extensions then all but the default windows extensions, and after restarting for both, unfortunately no change. File Explorer opens instantly from the desktop, very slightly slower from the start menu and about 1-2 seconds slower from the taskbar. I know having something open in a second vs instantly is trivial but it is frustrating when my far inferior work computer with a HDD and company antivirus software can open File Explorer instantly while my personal rig cannot. 

For ages, before UEFI was a thing, custom build system took ages to boot compared to your cheap, ultra budget, systems. Ah.. those were the frustrating days.... the fancier your motherboard, the worst it got. But onto your problem which is not normal. It is very hard for me to know... I know your system history, and what you have.

 

What you can do is unplug the HDD, remain on the SSD only (obviously unplug your HDD while your system is turned off), and now see if your problem has been solved. This will eliminate the HDD or SATA cable or (just came to mind) crappy secondary SATA Controller if you have one, if you do (make sure you are using the main one, the one of the chipset I mean.. refer to the motherboard manual to know which is which)

 

Beside that check that, in your UEFI of your system, that: SATA Controller set to AHCI mode.

On your way (not related to your problem, but on your way):

• CSM is disabled
• UEFI mode enabled (and not set to Legacy)
• Fast Boot enabled
• XMP / DOCP set to Profile 1
• POST delay 0sec
• Disable all unused features, including empty SATA ports
• And... I don't know I feel like I am missing things....sorry

 

Beside that you can try a new fresh account in Windows. Make one, log out from your, and go to that new account, wait until Windows finishes teh account creation once you see the desktop and everything, as the moment you see it, Windows it still doing things on the back. Then try there. Is it better? If not, then you are looking at a clean install of Windows on your system, just to know if it is something you installed.

 

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My thought process:

1. If the shortcut was borked, launching from different locations would not affect load time (All would be slow). 

Correct.

Quote

2. If Indexing, Quick Access, or Defender were the problem launching from different locations would not affect load time (All would be slow). 

Correct

Quote

3. If Windows by nature launched the same shortcut from different locations at the same speed, then It would be a similar phenomena across different machines, which I have not observed. They are both fundamentally doing the same thing are they not?

True

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4. It has to be something else, like a graphics driver? But there isn't a special animation for opening from the taskbar. 

Well, under Windows 10, the Start menu, task bar, and it's panels (date/time, volume, network, etc), are all GPU rendered. That said, File Explorer isn't.. well the border of the window is, but not the main GUI of File Explorer.

 

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With my limited knowledge I am fully stumped.

 

What are your thoughts on this?

 

To be honest, same here