winxp : Max Icon Cache dissapears from the registry?

[John P.]

Hi,

I've noticed file browsing/desktop showing sometimes refreshes and this kind
of slows it down - I've used to following entries added to the registry:

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced]
"NoNetCrawling"=dword:00000001

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer]
"Max Cached Icons"="12000"

After adding these lines, the system doesn't clog everytime I open a new
window in file explorer or show the desktop, it's much faster.

I'm not sure why, I haven't done any system restore or anything but after a
couple of days I've noticed refreshes again and looked in the registry only
to find the max cached icons missing being replaced by a d'word entry which
had something like a 2000 value - I didn't take a note of it since I've
thought I'd find an answer on the net, but so far I wasn't able to...

Appreciate any help!
John

(running winxp home-sp2)

 

[Detlev Dreyer]

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced]
"NoNetCrawling"=dword:00000001

There is no need to fiddle around with the registry. Explorer > Tools >
Folder Options > View tab > Advanced Settings > Automatically search for
network folders and printers > untick to set that registry value above.

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer]
"Max Cached Icons"="12000"

That value is nonsense because out of range.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/132668/en-us (excerpt)

| The Max Cached Icons value data range is between 100 and 4096. The
| default value is 500. ^^^^

I'm not sure why, I haven't done any system restore or anything but
after a couple of days I've noticed refreshes again and looked in the
registry only to find the max cached icons missing being replaced by a
d'word entry which had something like a 2000 value

Windows doesn't replace the value of that registry entry. Most likely,
there is a "tuning tool" installed, running as a Shell extension.
Although not recommended to use such tools, it's apparently smart enough
to correct your mess. Do yourself a favour and leave the registry alone.