question

LukPlach-6786 avatar image
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LukPlach-6786 asked JiaYou-MSFT edited

Windows Explorer Freezing Delay

Why is this problem in Windows Explorer for many years now, across various Windows installation instances, updates and versions (Vista, 7, 10), across various hardware (SATA 7200k, SATA SSD or M.2 NVMe SSD, 3 various SSD drives in case of the last), encrypted as unencrypted drives as well (drive C: in the demonstration video is unencrypted)?)?

While all other software (Total Commander used in the demonstration video) is working fine with the disk, including file moves, creating/listing directories (folders), displaying pop-up context menus, however Windows Explorer fails to do so, needing tens to hundreds of seconds for each of these operations to execute. Is it possible to set this behavior differently or switch-off this feature entirely?

Problem demonstration see video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yUTXhP7Bk_0

Addendum:
Unfortunately not even Process Explorer revealed any discrepancies in the threads/load of Explorer (so it seems to be really an intended delay-feature of the Windows Explorer).
Moreover, while I was recording the second video below, the other part of this problem manifested itself (you may find it from 5:30 in the video): randomly, without any reason, this problem stops occurring and Explorer works fine until another PC restart/wake up, or after visiting a different folder at random (also such a folder, where there was no change of content data, so the thumbnailer/indexing service could not be fault). So after 5:30, while I was performing the very same operations as previously, Explorer suddenly works like a charm (for a few moments at least).

Addendum video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M1DyrSIoNuM


windows-10-generalwindows-10-hardware-performance
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JiaYou-MSFT avatar image
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JiaYou-MSFT answered LukPlach-6786 commented

HI LukPlach-6786,


Thanks for your time to post this issue.

0.Could you please enter winver in command prompt on win10 computer and look the os version and os version number ?[for example windows 10 enterprise 1809 (os build 17763.316)]

1.can we run below command in command prompt(open as admin)then check if it can find and solve system file issue?|

sfc scannow
dism /online /cleanup-image /scanhealth
dism /online /cleanup-image /restorehealth

2.Please check the symptom in a clean boot (refer to windows 10 steps) environment if it is possible.

How to perform a clean boot in Windows
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/929135/how-to-perform-a-clean-boot-in-windows

3.What's the model of your physical computer?

"Why is this problem in Windows Explorer for many years now, across various Windows installation instances, updates and versions (Vista, 7, 10)"
4.It indicate that your issue happened on all win10 version. But now I can't reproduce your issue on my working win10(20h2) enterprise with version 19042.572(Dell 7060), I am not sure if it will happen in future, so how can I reproduce your issue in my computer easily?

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I have no idea how to reproduce it, since I have no idea what is the reason for this. In fact it happens on clean Windows too, however due to the unpredictability nature of this issue I cannot get i pinpointted when it steps in. Maybe try a big SDD HDD with lot of files with about 1,2 TB (if it is the indexer/thumbnailer). Else I woudl dare to suggest to consult the programmers team of the Explorer, so they can guess, as per behavior, in what excat part (class method/thread, code block) the problem is.

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HI LukPlach-6786,

Thanks for your reply.

1.Did you check if the same issue happen on win10(20h2) VM?

2.What's the model of physical your pc? Did you enable "Drive Mode" in your BIOS?

3."Maybe try a big SDD HDD with lot of files with about 1,2 TB (if it is the indexer/thumbnailer). "
I also agree with this. I see you are using samsung ssd 970 evo plus, but when issue happen there is high disk transfer rate.

Did you check if the same issue happen on win10 with only one HDD disk?

Did you install the latest disk controller driver, motherboard driver, Intel Rapid Storage Technology driver for your issue computer?
101883-11.png


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11.png (160.3 KiB)

Yes, the issue happens with only ONE HDD disk, since I DO NOT HAVE more than one HDD - I have ONLY ONE HDD (disk F: is just a SD card that happened to be in the slot during the recording, yet the issues happens also without the card present, and as stated earlier, it also happened across other Windows versions (Vista, 7, 10), HDD types (7200k, SATA and PCI SSD), computer hardware (typically Lenovo X200 series) and installations).

The transfer rates you see are due to the recording of the screenshot video.

All the other issues (drivers) you are adressing would mean that all software would be influenced, but as you can clearly see from the demonstrational video, other software (Total Commander in the demo) works fine with the HDD exactly in moments when Explorer stalls, so the issue is clearly NOT hardware/driver based (unless Explorer would use some other disk access than the OS provides through its API).

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JiaYou-MSFT avatar image
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JiaYou-MSFT answered JiaYou-MSFT edited

HI LukPlach-6786,

Thanks for your reply.

When your computer in current issue condition, please run procmon as admin and reproduce your issue to create a new folder then capture the issue procmon log.

When your computer in normal condition, please run procmon as admin and reproduce your issue to create a new folder then capture the normal procmon log.

Please compare which difference between the normal log and issue log.
Process Monitor v3.82
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/procmon


If your issue related to win10 system itself, I think we can feedback your issue by using feedback so that PG can notice it. Thanks for you to discover this issue.
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/send-feedback-to-microsoft-with-the-feedback-hub-app-f59187f8-8739-22d6-ba93-f66612949332

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