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Solved Windows explorer slower than molasses in the middle of January

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TheDiagGuy

TheDiagGuy

PCHF Member
Jul 28, 2019
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#1
Hello!

Been a long time since I've needed the wisdom of my fellow PC enthusiasts! Tried searching and didn't come up with anything useful other than the methods I already tried.

Speccy for those who know what to do with it: http://speccy.piriform.com/results/tG75cwSF7KZdz1gGBghYPWA

The issue is this: Windows explorer is incredibly and frustratingly slow. Its so slow it feels like I'm on an old laptop with a failing spinning platter hard drive trying to recover files.
Nothing else on the computer is slow - just windows explorer. Nothing else slows down when explorer slows down. I use this laptop daily for everything from gaming to running our budget for our businesses. CPU usage doesn't spike or anything when explorer is slow. The highest consumption from the explorer process is about 15-20%. This issue is very frustrating because it is flat-out not usable in this current state.

Things I've tried:
Restarting the computer. Still slow even after a restart
Ending Explorer.exe and restarting it using task manager
Clearing the thumbnail cache using CCleaner.

Thanks in advance!
 
#4
Strange, this program only kills non essential programs, never seen it cause a bsod. Can you try a clean boot and see if explorer is ok under clean boot.
 
#5
Clean boot? Explain? You mean a clean install of Windows? I'm sure THAT would fix the problem - and I'd usually just do that, but I don't want to do that until all else has been exhausted.
 
#6
www.howtogeek.com

How to Perform a Clean Boot in Windows

Modern computers come loaded with hundreds of processes and services designed to make the operating system run smoothly. Sometimes when you install a program or service, they may interfere with crucial services, resulting in unexpected program crashes, error messages popping up, or slowing down...
www.howtogeek.com www.howtogeek.com
 
#7
Clean boot seems to have corrected the issue. So this is the part where I get to try each and every item one at a time until it acts up? Gonna have to clear my schedule...
 
#8
Reverse the clean boot and let me have a look...


Download Autoruns and Autorunsc Unzip it to your desktop and then right click
Capture.PNG

Run as Admin.
After the scan is finished then click on File----Then click----Save
The default name will be autoruns.arn make sure to leave it this way.
Attach the file in your next reply.
If the file is too large, then use catbox.moe or Ufile.io and send the link in your next reply.
 
#10
Sorry it took so long to reply, been swamped with other work.

So apparently it was a few specific files that I was trying to work with that were causing it to slow down when I would try to work with them specifically. I deleted them and now I have no more issues... extremely weird...
 
#11
Ok, thanks for letting us know. This thread will be marked as solved. If you need it reopened you can private message any staff member.

Before it’s closed as solved, could you let us know what the files were? Perhaps it could help another person with the same issue down the road.
 
#12
They were .webp files. They were pictures I copied from a listing of one of my instruments from the reverb app that I was sending to my PC from my phone via email. Three of the ten came up as .webp instead of .jpg
 
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