Fix Slow Folders In Windows 7

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.

Related Articles:

Author: Martin Brinkmann, Thursday February 4, 2010 -
Tags:optimize folders, slow folders, windows 7, windows-explorer

Responses so far:

1. Jeff says:

   November 30, 2011 at 8:11 am

   Thanks!
   Works for me. I was having problems with slow folder shares from my home file server.
   This solution fixed it for me, and I thought I had a bad drive, starting to fail, etc….

   Load off my mind, many many thanks!
   Jeff-

   Reply
2. bilgar02 says:

   January 24, 2012 at 7:07 pm

   Great. Worked for me, too. Was already on ‘Video’ so changed it to ‘General’, ticked the box & was away … :)

   Wish I’d known about this fix long ago – I’ve suffered on previous computer ….

   Reply
3. Rakesh Malhotra says:

   February 7, 2012 at 9:40 pm

   Thanks! Great Tip.

   Reply
4. romunov says:

   February 22, 2012 at 10:52 am

   Worked for me, thank you!

   Reply
5. Sven Vanleke says:

   March 6, 2012 at 12:08 pm

   Thanks for your great tip. It solved a lot of frustrations.

   Reply
6. Anonymous says:

   March 22, 2012 at 2:51 am

   Thanks… It’s works….

   Reply
7. David says:

   March 27, 2012 at 9:02 am

   Thanks, this has been bugging me for months, but this solves it. Incredible that even the My Pictures folder should be optimized for Videos instead of Pictures for proper displaying in Windows Explorer!

   Reply
8. Boris says:

   March 28, 2012 at 4:27 am

   Fixed my problem as well – folder with 400gb of mp4 videos with filetype set to video was painfully slow to load. Changed to general, and boom! fixed!

   Thanks for the tip

   Reply
9. Masroor Aijaz says:

   March 31, 2012 at 11:12 am

   Thank you for this tip.

   It solved my problem in Windows XP,

   Reply
10. Nick says:

    May 17, 2012 at 8:03 pm

    Thanks for posting. Fixed my problem.

    Reply