When you open My Documents...

[mishmish3000]

everything grinds to a halt on the HP computer I have here at work.

It had originally been set up to run Windows 7, but since our IT department isn't quite ready for Windows 7 they took the PC, yanked 7 off and plopped XP on the machine.

Ever since then, at least once or twice a day, when I navigate using Windows Explorer to C:\My Documents, the hard drive light comes on, the computer whirrs comfortably to itself for 5-8 minutes (yes, minutes) and then finally unlocks itself and allows me to view and interact with files. If I try to open anything or click on anything while it's "thinking", the whole system locks permanently and then I have to do a hard shutdown.

The IT staff here has glanced at it but hasn't really looked into it, so I was wondering... any ideas on how to improve the performance and stop this annoying hitch? Remember, I have no admin rights, so all I could do is suggest your suggestions to a friendly IT person (yes, they do exist and yes, I know some here).

Thanks! I'll attach a screen shot with some system specifics.
MishMish3000

[agibsonsw]

Only speculating here but it might be worth creating a shortcut to My Documents and, if you are on a network, placing this shortcut in your personal drive. I have no idea if (or why) this would help but it's something I would try.

You might request your IT department to copy and re-create this folder (it might not actually live on your C drive..? It might be pointing to a network share).

But someone of greater note might come along and correct me

[mishmish3000]

Hey, I'll try it and see... thanks!

[HansV]

Your PC looks fast enough! No shortage of memory either!
Do you have a lot of subfolders in My Documents? And/or a lot of zip files?

[mishmish3000]

Yes, I was thrilled to get a faster PC with more memory... now I can actually run Access and SAS! LOL
But no, I don't have a lot of zipped files on the hard drive. I have about 20 subfolders under MY Documents. What I do have a lot of right now are small *.jpg files, since I take screen shots of things I'm doing, save them in My Documents and then paste them from there into documents I create. But I try to keep those pesky image files organized logically so they aren't all over the place. Usually when I'm done with them, I delete them and then empty the trash bin.

The PC for the week or two that I was blessed to have it with its native Windows 7 on it, never did this. It only started happening after they put XP SP3 on there. But then I have a couple of PCs at home that still run XP SP3 and they never ever do this hanging thing with opening My Documents. Only this one does. Sigh.

Hope everyone has a nice weekend!
MishMish3000

[Leif]

In Windows Explore > Tools > Folder Options...

Check if you have selected the "Automatically search..." option selected:

x.jpg

- I find this can have an enormous impact on open WE.

[mishmish3000]

By George, it WAS checked. I unchecked it, so we'll see today if that helps. Maybe that was it!
Thanks!
MishMish3000