K
Ken Bosward
I have a single folder encrypted with EFS containing only MS Word documents.
Intermittently if I try to open one of those documents, Windows Explorer
hangs for several minutes. While it is hung I can swap through open programs
using Alt-Tab and some will work (eg. PuTTY ssh sessions to remote computers
continue to accept commands), but others won't (eg. if I try to ping
something from an existing command prompt, the ping command hangs). I can't
launch any new programs, including Task Manager (I can right-click on the
task bar and select Task Manager but nothing launches, or I can press
Ctrl-Alt-Del and choose Task Manager but nothing launches). Once I have
tried to launch a new program, the task bar is completely unresponsive,
Ctrl-Esc and Ctrl-Alt-Del no longer work, although Alt-Tab still works.
Another way of triggering the hang is if I try to insert a picture in MS
Word and browse to the directory containing the encrypted folder. I notice
the folder icons (in thumbnail view) are all plain icons and Windows appears
to have hung trying to build the thumbnail folder icons which show what's
inside. It appears to have hung because it can't access the encrypted
folder. Yet if I open the same folder directly in Windows Explorer it has no
problem building the folder icons.
I once had Task Manager running when the hang occurred and it kept updating,
but showed no program consuming CPU, however when I tried to view Network
performance it just showed a blank area where the graphs normally appear.
If I leave it for long enough (several minutes) everything comes back, then
I can access the encrypted files without problems, and can insert pictures
in MS Word. Everything works well then until I reboot, then the next time I
try to access the encrypted folder I am likely to get the problem again. It
has been happening both on WinXP SP1 and SP2 (although it went away for a
few months after the upgrade to SP2, but now is back again). Running on an
IBM ThinkPad.
Sometimes if I reimport my encryption key and unencrypt/re-encrypt the files
the problem goes away for a few weeks.
Any ideas? I like the concept of EFS in being able to have a transparently
encrypted folder of files, but it is useless I my laptop is going to hang
for several minutes at a time!
Thanks,
Ken.
Intermittently if I try to open one of those documents, Windows Explorer
hangs for several minutes. While it is hung I can swap through open programs
using Alt-Tab and some will work (eg. PuTTY ssh sessions to remote computers
continue to accept commands), but others won't (eg. if I try to ping
something from an existing command prompt, the ping command hangs). I can't
launch any new programs, including Task Manager (I can right-click on the
task bar and select Task Manager but nothing launches, or I can press
Ctrl-Alt-Del and choose Task Manager but nothing launches). Once I have
tried to launch a new program, the task bar is completely unresponsive,
Ctrl-Esc and Ctrl-Alt-Del no longer work, although Alt-Tab still works.
Another way of triggering the hang is if I try to insert a picture in MS
Word and browse to the directory containing the encrypted folder. I notice
the folder icons (in thumbnail view) are all plain icons and Windows appears
to have hung trying to build the thumbnail folder icons which show what's
inside. It appears to have hung because it can't access the encrypted
folder. Yet if I open the same folder directly in Windows Explorer it has no
problem building the folder icons.
I once had Task Manager running when the hang occurred and it kept updating,
but showed no program consuming CPU, however when I tried to view Network
performance it just showed a blank area where the graphs normally appear.
If I leave it for long enough (several minutes) everything comes back, then
I can access the encrypted files without problems, and can insert pictures
in MS Word. Everything works well then until I reboot, then the next time I
try to access the encrypted folder I am likely to get the problem again. It
has been happening both on WinXP SP1 and SP2 (although it went away for a
few months after the upgrade to SP2, but now is back again). Running on an
IBM ThinkPad.
Sometimes if I reimport my encryption key and unencrypt/re-encrypt the files
the problem goes away for a few weeks.
Any ideas? I like the concept of EFS in being able to have a transparently
encrypted folder of files, but it is useless I my laptop is going to hang
for several minutes at a time!
Thanks,
Ken.