Windows Explorer - getting rid of those superfluous + signs?

[Bill in Co.]

I've noticed that when you click on windows explorer to see all the files
and directories, you always have to wait several seconds for explorer to get
it right - i.e., which folders have subfolders, and actually need that +
sign, and which don't, so that it (finally) removes the + sign where it
should (because there is nothing to expand in those particular folders).

Is there a workaround to this, short of (possibly) reverting back to the old
Win98SE IE55 browseui and browselc DLL fix?

Actually, I'm not even sure I can get away with this in Windows XP. Has
anybody tried it? (Some of ya may recall that was a solution to the
infamous "file delete hang" introduced by IE6, when trying to delete a large
number of files).

 

[Bill in Co.]

I've noticed that when you click on windows explorer to see all the files
and directories, you always have to wait several seconds for explorer to
get
it right - i.e., which folders have subfolders and actually need that +
sign,
and which don't - so that explorer finally! removes the extra + signs
where they shouldn't be (because there are no subfolders there).

Is there a workaround to this, short of (possibly) reverting back to the
old
Win98SE IE55 browseui and browselc DLL fix?

Actually, I'm not even sure I can get away with this in Windows XP. Has
anybody tried it? (Some of ya may recall that was a solution to the
infamous "file delete hang" introduced by IE6, when trying to delete a
large
number of files).

Just an update to this: I tried swapping out those two IE6 XP DLLs with
the older IE55 ones to patch out that problem, but it's a "no go" on XP
(which is perhaps to be expected). Too bad. (But it worked quite well on
a Win98SE system).

I would still like to know if there is a solution to this 10 second (or
whatever) delay for explorer to *finally* get settled down,and get rid of
those superfluous + signs (for the directories that don't have any
subdirectories).

It's just a bit annoying if you spend a lot of time down there (in explorer,
working at the file and directory level, and have to wait for it to get over
its song and dance routine).

 

[Malke]

Just an update to this: I tried swapping out those two IE6 XP DLLs with
the older IE55 ones to patch out that problem, but it's a "no go" on XP
(which is perhaps to be expected). Too bad. (But it worked quite well
on a Win98SE system).

I would still like to know if there is a solution to this 10 second (or
whatever) delay for explorer to *finally* get settled down,and get rid of
those superfluous + signs (for the directories that don't have any
subdirectories).

It's just a bit annoying if you spend a lot of time down there (in
explorer, working at the file and directory level, and have to wait for it
to get over its song and dance routine).

Control Panel>Folder Options>View tab - tick the box next to "Simple File
Viewing". The language of this option might not be exactly what I've
written here (none of the XP boxen are on right now) but it is one of the
first options on the View tab and will be obvious to you which one I mean
when you look at it.

Malke

 

[Bill in Co.]

Control Panel>Folder Options>View tab - tick the box next to "Simple File
Viewing". The language of this option might not be exactly what I've
written here (none of the XP boxen are on right now) but it is one of the
first options on the View tab and will be obvious to you which one I mean
when you look at it.

No, that doesn't affect what I'm talking about. I guess I'm not making my
point very clear. With or without that option checked, the problem still
exists.

When you open windows explorer and click on (for example) the C: drive, to
see its contents, you have to WAIT for explorer to settle down (for all the
+ signs at the directories to either stay or go away - for that to get
sorted out) before you can do much of anything in windows explorer. And
that takes some time (even moreso the first time you open explorer on any
new directory).

I'm also using those explorer switches in the shortcut, for example:
%SystemRoot%\explorer.exe /n,/e,C:\

But again, it doesn't solve the problem.

 

[Malke]

No, that doesn't affect what I'm talking about. I guess I'm not making
my
point very clear. With or without that option checked, the problem
still exists.

When you open windows explorer and click on (for example) the C: drive, to
see its contents, you have to WAIT for explorer to settle down (for all
the + signs at the directories to either stay or go away - for that to get
sorted out) before you can do much of anything in windows explorer. And
that takes some time (even moreso the first time you open explorer on any
new directory).

I'm also using those explorer switches in the shortcut, for example:
%SystemRoot%\explorer.exe /n,/e,C:\

But again, it doesn't solve the problem.

No, I'm sorry that I don't know how to change that behavior. But perhaps you
don't have enough memory in your system. It takes no time at all for my
Windows Explorer to display the tree on any of my Windows machines and none
of them are particularly beefed up, although the least RAM I have is 512MB
in one laptop.

Sorry that I can't suggest anything else.

Malke

 

[Bill in Co.]

No, I'm sorry that I don't know how to change that behavior. But perhaps
you
don't have enough memory in your system. It takes no time at all for my
Windows Explorer to display the tree on any of my Windows machines and
none
of them are particularly beefed up, although the least RAM I have is 512MB
in one laptop.

Sorry that I can't suggest anything else.

Malke

Thanks for trying at least. I have 1 GB of RAM, and a 1.6 GHz machine.
Guess that's not enough for a speedy response from Explorer

After you boot up and you first click explorer on the C: drive to expand it
and show all subfolders, you don't notice a NOTICEABLE delay? (keep in
mind I'm also using that explorer switch shortcut to help get to that point
initially in the first place)

Well, I'm kinda used to an instantaneous response from my Win98SE computer
for explorer - WITH the two DLL patches I mentioned (which eliminated this
problem completely).

Before that patch was made, however, I think the same thing happened over
there too, once IE6 came into existence. It never happened with IE55, but
the "updates" made to those two browse DLLs in IE6 created the problem -
along with the reported "large number of files delete hanging problem", on
the Win98 systems.

 

[Malke]

Thanks for trying at least. I have 1 GB of RAM, and a 1.6 GHz machine.
Guess that's not enough for a speedy response from Explorer

I assume that you have a laptop with a modern processor then like an Intel
Core2 Duo or the like and not a Celeron. Certainly 1GB of RAM is enough for
XP's normal behavior. If you have a Celeron and are sharing video RAM, then
that's why your machine is slowish, even with 1GB of RAM.

After you boot up and you first click explorer on the C: drive to expand
it
and show all subfolders, you don't notice a NOTICEABLE delay? (keep in
mind I'm also using that explorer switch shortcut to help get to that
point initially in the first place)

Nope. Sorry. No delay. Maybe you have a lot of stuff running in the
background. Maybe you have Norton, McAfee, Panda, or CA AV installed or
equally bloated programs like SpySweeper. There's no way for me to tell but
all I can say is that on the 3 XP boxen I have here right now - all of
which are older - I don't experience any delays in gui responsiveness
whatsoever. But I have AMD or Intel processors and even the laptop has a
discrete video (no shared).

Don't have anything else to add to this, so EOT for me.

Malke

 

[Bill in Co.]

I assume that you have a laptop with a modern processor then like an Intel
Core2 Duo or the like and not a Celeron. Certainly 1GB of RAM is enough
for
XP's normal behavior. If you have a Celeron and are sharing video RAM,
then
that's why your machine is slowish, even with 1GB of RAM.

No. I have a Dell Inspirion Desktop, but NOT with a dual-core processor
(not needed or useful for XP). And, yes, it's an Intel Celeron. And no
special graphics card (I think it's on the motherboard) (wasn't into that
stuff - no need here, never run games). So obviously our systems are
quite different! That's probably the explanation then.

Nope. Sorry. No delay. Maybe you have a lot of stuff running in the
background. Maybe you have Norton, McAfee, Panda, or CA AV installed or
equally bloated programs like SpySweeper. There's no way for me to tell
but
all I can say is that on the 3 XP boxen I have here right now - all of
which are older - I don't experience any delays in gui responsiveness
whatsoever. But I have AMD or Intel processors and even the laptop has a
discrete video (no shared).

Don't have anything else to add to this, so EOT for me.

OK, thanks for the info though.