Hi everyone,
I’m writing about slower-than-expected response from my computer’s explorer windows after performing a file search. If I simply open a folder w/ hundreds of files, the action and display are quick to respond (like normal operation). However, if I perform a search, the action becomes quite lethargic. Our IT guy and I have googled, but we get a lot of hits that really don’t fit this specific problem. So I felt compelled to share my plight w/ the Dopers.
This is my office computer: Dell Vostro 1510, 3GHz ram, WinXP2002, SP3. I am not using any external search function such as Windows Search.
When I perform a file search, the window and its contents begin to respond slowly. Even if the search is over, and there’s only a few (say 12) files showing in the window, it reacts sluggishly. But if the list is populated with more than a screen’s worth of results, it gets worse. Just scrolling horizontally (so I can see the other columns such as file size or file type), it can take 3-4 seconds for the screen to respond. Vertical scroll response is “choppy” and taking even longer. A few times the window has gone to a blank white, and it’s gone “transparent” more often than that. When I try to close the window, I often get the “This program is not responding…” prompt.
This happens whether I’m searching the network or my local drive… I notice no difference. It does not happen in searches that I perform of my mailbox using Outlook (and some of those lists have been very long). It does not appear to be a display issue, since other lists and programs are unaffected.
I have run malwarebytes a few times, and it comes back clean.
Has anyone else experienced this behavior? Any ideas on what’s going on, and any remedies?
I tried the advice from this post, but it had no effect. Getting rid of Windows XP search program. - Factual Questions - Straight Dope Message Board
Thanks in advance.