Windows Explorer locking up frequently in Vista

Tek7

Tek7

CGA President, Tribe of Judah Founder & President
Staff member
During the last week, Windows Explorer has locked up almost half the time I try to perform a file operation (delete, move, copy, paste, etc.). I'm able to force-close the explorer.exe process, but this is really starting to get on my nerves now.

Any general tips on fixing this problem?
 
Tek7 said:
Any general tips on fixing this problem?
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I would go ahead and check the smart status of your drive (and do it periodically as it will generally tell you when things fall out of the baseline). Also is the transfer stalling or just not updating? If you can replicate it to a reliable degree then you could try disabling the antivirus momentarily to see if that solves it. Also error checking, defragging and then throwing it off a cliff will probably speed up the system.
 
I had tons of issues with vista in this area and networking(which performed worse) i killed UAC and vista runs as smooth as it can.
 
once when i had this issue..a simple reformat fixed the issue as an update had screwed up and zonked the box.
 
vibrokatana said:
I would go ahead and check the smart status of your drive (and do it periodically as it will generally tell you when things fall out of the baseline).
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Disk Management says the disk and all partitions are healthy.

vibrokatana said:
Also is the transfer stalling or just not updating?
Click to expand...
It appears to stall before the operation begins.

vibrokatana said:
If you can replicate it to a reliable degree then you could try disabling the antivirus momentarily to see if that solves it.
Click to expand...
It seems to happen every time I perform any function involving the CTRL or SHIFT key (e.g. CTRL+V for paste, SHIFT+DEL for immediate deletion). I've had to start actually using my Recycle Bin, which has been an odd (and troublesome) experience.

Right-click operations work most of the time, but not always.

vibrokatana said:
Also error checking, defragging and then throwing it off a cliff will probably speed up the system.
Click to expand...
I'll try to set some time aside for the first two this week. I can't afford to replace the drive right now, so I'll be skipping the third recommendation. :p

XionTawa said:
I have always had issues like that with Vista...until I got Teracopy...
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vibrokatana said:
wow... To think that someone actually took the time to develop a replacement for an essential OS function...
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I agree it's sad, but I'll likely give the free version of TeraCopy a whirl.

Hescominsoon said:
I had tons of issues with vista in this area and networking(which performed worse) i killed UAC and vista runs as smooth as it can.
Click to expand...
I disabled UAC a while back. :(

Hescominsoon said:
once when i had this issue..a simple reformat fixed the issue as an update had screwed up and zonked the box.
Click to expand...
Unfortunately, formatting and re-installing would cost me 3-5 days. :( I know I'll have to wipe and reload at some point, but I just received this notebook in March. I should have at least a few more months before I have to nuke the drive and start over.
 
Tek7 said:
Disk Management says the disk and all partitions are healthy.

It appears to stall before the operation begins.

It seems to happen every time I perform any function involving the CTRL or SHIFT key (e.g. CTRL+V for paste, SHIFT+DEL for immediate deletion). I've had to start actually using my Recycle Bin, which has been an odd (and troublesome) experience.

Right-click operations work most of the time, but not always.

I'll try to set some time aside for the first two this week. I can't afford to replace the drive right now, so I'll be skipping the third recommendation. :p


I agree it's sad, but I'll likely give the free version of TeraCopy a whirl.

I disabled UAC a while back. :(

Unfortunately, formatting and re-installing would cost me 3-5 days. :( I know I'll have to wipe and reload at some point, but I just received this notebook in March. I should have at least a few more months before I have to nuke the drive and start over.
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3-5 days? it should not take you over 4 hours at the absolute worst.
 
vibrokatana said:
Installing and configuring all the cruft is what takes up all the time. Installing the OS is easy.
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QFT.

And I would replace "cruft" with "useful applications that I use on a regular basis."
 
Seriously what are you installing that takes 3-5 days. I can install the OS, all my apps in under 2 hours. The only thing that takes any time is transferring backup files back to my machine off my server but that's an overnight operation
 
If he's like me - it can take a couple of days to find my original disks.

What do you do about resetting all your preferences in various pieces of software? That is one of the main reasons I don't reformat more often - getting back to where I was is tough.
 
Abba San said:
If he's like me - it can take a couple of days to find my original disks.

What do you do about resetting all your preferences in various pieces of software? That is one of the main reasons I don't reformat more often - getting back to where I was is tough.
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Well, I currently run linux so if you just backup the hidden config directories in your home folder that does a pretty good job of restoring everything. Although I never have to reformat linux unless I want to try a new distro. But on Windows I usually don't change to much in the options of Windows and I just reconfigure the apps as I use them.
 
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