Slow opening Excel files after accessing them through a folder shortcut

[lucasfrance]

Situation identically reproduced on two PCs, both running WinXP SP2 and
Office 2003 all fully up-to-date.

I have several Excel files stored in a subfolder.

If I create a shortcut of this subfolder on my desktop and click on
this shrotcut to access this subfolder to open the Excel files => it
takes ages to start Excel and to open the file.

If I access the same file but through the explorer by browsing to the
folder itself (means not acccessing the folder through the folder
shortcut created on my desktop) => all is OK, fast Excel launch and
file opening.

That's a very weird one !!!
Any ideas ?

Regards.

 

[Mark Lincoln]

I see the same kind of problem accessing Excel 97 files on a Novell
server. I wonder if Windows does any kind of checking of files in
folders or network drives that are accessed via shortcuts.

Try creating a shortcut for one of the files on the desktop and see if
it opens more quickly.

 

[lucasfrance]

Hi Mark,

Thanks for your answer. That's exactly what I have done. Creating a
shortcut for the file on the desktop and no delay for opening it with
Excel. But still I have several Excel files to access dans cannot do
this for all of them. Thanks for the confirmation it seems there is a
real problem with Excel on this point.

Best regards.

 

[Mark Lincoln]

I don't think it's an Excel problem as much as a Windows problem. I
have network attached storage at home, with a folder named "Offloaded
Files" in my My Pictures folder containing a shortcut to one of the NAS
drives. If I copy a (non-Excel) file to the "Offloaded Files" folder
(which puts the image on the same level as the shortcut) the process
takes several seconds. If I first create a folder in "Offloaded Files"
and copy files to that, the process is very much quicker. I surmise
that there's something about Windows having to reconcile the shortcut
that causes the problem, as in the situation just described I save
files directly to a folder on my local drive--but a folder *contains* a
shortcut.

 

[Mark Lincoln]

I did a bit of research on the Web and it looks like a mapping issue.
If you have a mapped drive, once the mapping is done everything should
be fine. (This is the case with folders on my NAS). Items not mapped
(like shortcuts) need to be re-mapped on each access.

I would see if it's possible to map a drive letter to the folder in
which you're storing your Excel files, then create a desktop shortcut
to the mapped drive and see if that solves the problem. I'll be
interested to see if it does.

 

[lucasfrance]

Hi Mark,

You got it, a shortcut to a mapped drives containing the files makes
the Excel file open very fast, as it should be.
So I can confirm your hypothesis.
Many thanks !

=> Now it is to Microsoft to fix this behavior.

Regards.

 

[lucasfrance]

Mark,

After more deep testings the situation is not that simple :
I have on the desktop both a shortcut to the folder containing the
Excel files and a shortcut to the mapped drive to the folder containing
Excel files.

1/ If I use the shortcut to the mapped drive first, Excel files open
quick,
2/ after that if I use the shortcut to the folder to acces the Excel
files, open very slow,
3/ then back to the first item, and... files open slow too using the
mapped drive !!!

That's very strange !!

Regards.

 

[Mark Lincoln]

There's always something....

I would delete the shortcut to the folder. The shortcut to the mapped
"drive" should open the folder in the same way a direct shortcut to the
folder would. So the original shortcut is redundant, not to mention
problematical. It then remains to be seen if the shortcut to the
mapped drive becomes a problem over time as well.

Another possible workaround would be to create a folder directly on the
desktop and save the files you need to that. That eliminates any need
for shortcuts or mapping to open the folder as you're double-clicking
on it directly.

Best regards.