I have been experiencing one slow loading folder in Windows 7 lately which took me ages to figure out why it was happening and how that folder could be fixed so that it would display its contents right away. The folder was my download folder where all downloads from the Internet where placed in. It grew to a size of roughly 250 Gigabytes of data with all file types present: videos, photos, documents, programs and music. I first assumed it was simply to big or that the many files and subfolders inside would be the cause of the loading animation in the location bar. But deleting files and folders did not fix the problem.
There were other possibilities of which I explored all but none fixed the problem. This included antivirus software, shell extensions, the view mode or thumbnail caching. Then I read an article over at Addictive Tips about speeding up Windows 7 folder loading time. The explanation given in the article did not describe my problem but the solution fixed it.
I checked the folder properties after reading the article to see how this folder was optimized in Windows 7. It was set to pictures. I changed that value to videos and placed a checkmark in the “also apply this template to all subfolders” checkbox. (it also worked changing it to general items and documents with general items probably the best choice.
The result was incredible. The folder contents where displayed right away without loading time. I reverted the settings only to experience the slow loading folder contents once again.
It is safe to assume that this is some kind of caching gone wrong. I’m not sure why it was set to pictures in first place but this is the cause for the slow loading folder.
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Martin,
The post that you came across addictive tips,i ever came across in Techgravy blog and post it more earlier.
http://www.techgravy.net/2010/01/window-7-how-to-make-green-progress-bar.html
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Big Thanks, i had the same problem and your tip fixed it.
Thanks for that. This has been driving me mad and my Downloads folder was only 500 Meg.
I just couldn’t not believe that something so simple cleaned up not only my download folder but also my largest picture folder. It used to take at least a minute to load the picture folder. now it’s instant happiness :D
Thanks!
That fixed my problem as well!
There is no Customize tab on my Download folder.
phil, you need to look at the download folder from within your main folder and not from the favourites sidebar
this is great! fixed mine. thanks alot!
Awesome! I have been trying all different fixes for this problem. I had the same thing enabled with General Files and that did not do it. Thanks
Thank you for the fix! This has been driving me crazy for months!
Your’e a genius, identical problem here, solved by your tweak.
Nice one.
Holy motherfker, thanks!!!!!!!!!!!!
I don’t have the customize option…only the other four?:(
Hey, thanks for posting, I had the same problem and that fixed it!
thanks!!!
Thanks…
This problem had been really bugging me for quite some time now. Your solution worked a treat. Thanks so much.
The customize option doesn’t appear on root folders like C:Program Files, only subfolders.
It’s not due to caching, it’s due to Windows7 trying to determine informaiton about content as the folder is opened, if the content is “interesting” like pictures/video.
I think Win 7 takes a sort of snapshot of the folder content at some point and determines automatically what sort of optimisation it should apply function of what majority of the files are. I had videos mostly in one folder at some point and i shared the folder. Accessing it over the network was a nightmare. with time the contents became rather mixed with very little video content. The optimisation didn’t change and the folder continued to be treated as videos mostly. Disabling thumbnails and indexing did speed things up a little.
Switching to “General” helped a LOT mostly on the loading the folder over the network. Locally I can’t say I see much difference though. … maybe just bit.
super tip thanks a lot!
Worked great for me. Changing to Video didn’t do much, but changing to General Files did. Like others, this has been bothering me for a while.
Thank You thank you thank you. Now I can stop screaming at my computer during the long waits while singing the “Programmers (or their bosses) who set stupid defaults should be executed” song!
WOW! Had the very same file (downloads) that was ssssssllllllloooooooowwwwwww and changed from “pictures” to “general” — could not believe the speed difference! Thanx.
Excellent fix
thanks.. ::)
My issue was “I clicked on folders and they took like 31 seconds to appear” solution to reset folder settings with reset settings button worked like a charm, folders come up in about 0.0025th of a second now so yeah thanks alot folks Iam content once again with My PC Experience…! ~(____)~CheerzZz..-=8^)~(^8=-
changed to general did the trick, thank you very much!
Thanks! This was exaxtly I was looking for!
Users might also want to make sure that such folders are no included in the Windows Search indexing database. (Indexing Options in the control panel) Windows 7/Vista has a knack for unwisely recommending the user to add with a click, any folder within one searches to the indexing database. Even turning off the Windows Search indexing database completely would be a good idea for most users, although then the system will stupidly bug you about it every time you make a search. Such are the tradeoffs of making choices in Windows.