Windows Explorer hangs for minutes

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I’m (still) using Windows 98SE and lately Windows Explorer hangs for minutes after a folder delete, copy, or rename before recovering. During this time the whole PC is similarly affected. I have had this problem before, when I had Iomega software installed but no drive, but this is not the case now. I would have searched for a previous answer to this problem, but the Search function no longer appears on my Lounge menubar (how do I get this back?)

Any advice would be appreciated.

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FYI, take a look at this post and this one too.

Wow, could be a ton of reasons! First things to check out are viruses, spyware or other “intruders” like that. Next, are you connected to a LAN of any kind? How ’bout a SCANDISK and/or DEFRAG, have you done ’em lately? We’ll stay with you on this, but need more info, OK?

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It would also be useful to run 185836: Description of the System File Checker Tool (Sfc.exe). Start, point to Programs, point to Accessories, point to System Tools, click System Information, and then click System File Checker on the Tools menu. It may replace a damaged file or files that could be one of the causes of this. Are you getting any error messages or just a hang/freeze when you open Explorer? Also be sure to run Ad Aware and click the globe on the interface to use the latest data base and Spybot for to eliminate spyware, malware, problem BHO’s that may be causing this behavior. Also when it hangs, ctrl+alt+delete (don’t know if you can also rt. click task bar in 98) bring up Task Manager and see if any of the processes are not responding, and try to end them. You can go to the “Applications Tab”> Hit New Task, and then type in explorer.exe and that may start a new explorer and get you out of the freeze. You may also be able to eliminate processes you don’t need and also chkec msconfig utility’s start tab and see if you can trim things from startup you don’t need. Also you can Start>run and try a “scanreg/ restore”[/i] with a space after the forward slash in the runbox to a point before the behavior started if you know when that is.

221512: How to Manually Restore the Windows 98/Me Registry
This is as close to system restore as I can get since System Restore wasn’t brought in until ME, and 98 and ME have scan/reg restore snapshots of the registry defaulting to 5 and you can actually initiate them up to 100–they should have included this feature in XP and talked about it but didn’t. A number of people from Microsoft thought it would be.

Let us know and if you have any numbered error messages associated with this please let us know.

SMBP

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Thanks for all your responses, I’m very pleased that there is help available out there, but so far I’ve had no luck with any of the suggestions.

I have run Scandisk, Defrag (Diskeeper), PestPatrol scan (nothing found), Norton Antivirus scan (nothing found), edited the dektop.ini in the My Documents folder (no improvement), moved everything out of My Documents folder (no improvement), ran the System File Check utility (it restored a corrupted setupx.dll), but all to no avail.

There are no error messages or any clues other than a general “hang” of everything and full recovery after a couple of minutes.

The problem seems to be confined to file/folder deletes (not file moves) and to closing WIndows Explorer after a “hang” episode (it takes a minute or two to respond, during which time everything else stops too, although CPU utilisation is only 10% according to System Monitor). The other thing I have noticed is that after such a Windows Explorer episode and after closing Windows Explorer, it takes minutes to get into Internet Explorer as well.

Any other help/advice would be gratefully received. Is there any other information I can provide that would help?

Thank you.

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One thing for sure, if a couple or three minutes is involved and this is something you do often, we CAN’T give up on this one! We haven’t discussed yet – is this machine on a LAN? If so, there are settings to check out that could contribute to the problem. Also, I wonder if you’re deleting files in the “normal” way, that is letting them go to the Recycle Bin? If so, could there be a problem with the max. size setting of your bin, or the available space on the drive?

On the occasions this has come up in “my world” it was either a result of McAfee VirusScan software (ugh!) or automatic searching of the network mappings or shares. Since you have Norton installed, do you think it would be worth temporarily disabling everything of Norton and then trying an experimental delete to see if the problem persists…..

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Big Al, thank you for your interest. You are very nice to continue to help me with this issue. You’re of course quite right, it’s something I do all the time and the long PC pauses are very frustrating.

Firstly, the PC is on a LAN and the hard disks and local printer are shared (with password control), but there is no regular access from one PC to another, it’s more a convenience to print from the other PCs and for me to pick up a file from another PC, from time to time.

I have just done some tests and as per your advice, I disabled Norton Autoprotect and tried a delete of 264 files from a folder. I usually delete these files rather than send them to the Recycle Bin (using Shift+delete). This time I just sent them to the Recycle Bin, no “hang”, then I tried my usual way of deleting, still no “hang”, then I re-instated Norton Autoprotect and repeated the tests and surprisingly still no “hang”!

It’s a little suspicious that all of a sudden it’s OK, don’t you think? Unless it was a Norton bug that has been fixed in yesterday’s Live Update …. is that possible?

The other thing that is different at the moment, is that the other PCs are not being used (even though they work on local files, as they don’t have the password to access this PC) … I don’t know if that has anything to do with it? What do you think?

Thanks again for your help.

Regards

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Sounds like you’re getting somewhere! I don’t know for sure, since I don’t use Norton, but it could be that the act of turning that protection off and then on again did the trick. Weirder things have been known to happen, Or, as you surmised, it may have been that an update of Norton saved the day. If it (deletion) continues to behave, you may never know. Let’s hope. The reason I had asked about the LAN is that slowdowns, although probably not with Win98, have been known to happen because of Windows “checking” connections on the LAN. If you have any shares “mapped” it’s even more likely to cause a slowdown. If push came to shove, you might have to run REGEDIT and do a search for ” ” (double backslash, no quotes) to see what UNC paths might be called out in the registry. Bottom line though, I don’t think that looks like the problem in this case. (Fingers Crossed!)

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Tried a delete again this morning and unfortunately, the hanging is back again … I turned AutoProtect off in Norton and tried the delete again, but this time the hang did NOT go away (although the duration of the hang was shorter). I also observed that in spite of the Shift+Delete, Windows Explorer displayed the graphic that the files were going to the Recycle Bin (and the files did go there). Yesterday when the hang disappeared, the graphic in response to Shift+Delete was correct (and the files did not go to the Recycle Bin). I know I’m clutching at straws here, but I’m trying to present as much information as I have, in case it provides some sort of clue.

I then did a Regedit, as you suggested, and found quite a lot of , but not where I was expecting them … some examples:

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOTTypeLib{44EC0515 etc…}1.0HELDIR = C:WINDOWSSYSTEM

HKEY_CURRENT_USERControl PanelCursorsSchemesEntertainment = C:WINDOWSCursorsF_ARROW

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESoftwareAheadInCDSelect0 = C:Program FilesAheadNeronero.exe

The only “path looking” I found was:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESoftwareIntelPSISPSIS_DECODERGraph FIle = psistest.grf

There has got to be some difference between yesterday, when it wasn’t hanging and today, when it is, but I can’t think what it could be. Do you have any idea? Does the Registry provide any clues? Is there something else I could test/try?

Regards

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Boy, I sure hope another Lounger will jump in now and try to help me in helping you, ’cause I really think your slowdown problem might have something to do with all the Norton stuff. But, as I’ve already said, that’s a pure “swag” since I don’t have anything Norton on my system. Yeah, like you, I don’t see anything suspicious in the registry entries you found. I would have been looking for UNC path data to other network (your LAN) drives or sharenames. Hang in there…..

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Hi Useful,

In 98/98SE, there’s a bug that affects the way Windows Explorer interacts with the “My Documents” folder. As the number of files/folders in/under the “My Documents” folder grows, Windows Explorer slows down (sometimes dramatically). If that’s what you’re experiencing, try moving files/folders out of the “My Documents” folder, or pointing the “My Documents” setting to another folder.

Cheers

Cheers,
Paul Edstein
[Fmr MS MVP - Word]

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Threads on Slowing of Windows Explorer Along the lines of Macropod’s helpful tip:[/b]

Thanks Macropod. Before I was alerted to this problem, I was taking a traditional approach to fixing it.

Win 98 Explorer Moving Extremely Slowly

Computer Slows Way Down

My Documents Folder Slows Explorer Windows 98

Windows 98 Annoyances ForumComputer Slows Way Down[/url]

Organize Your Documents Folder

Pointing My Documents to Another Folder

SMBP

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