Windows Explorer sometimes locks up when trying to open a folder...

I used to suffer from this problem.

Windows is not only trying to read the file list, it's also trying to read the file properties.
In my case, I used to change a particular video file extension because a particular application I had would then be able to work with it.
But the file extension was false so Windows was not getting the responses it expected when it tried to read file properties. When, as a test, I left the same set of files there with their original file extensions, Windows could read & display the folder without problems.

Perhaps your problem is the same?

Best of luck,
Denis

Other option: Don't use explorer to browse folders that contain images. Get a dedicated image viewer and use that instead.

Supported graphic and image formats | XnView.com

Explorer:

Cannot create thumbnail by default so is slow to open the folder and might hang or crash.

XnView: Works without installing additional codecs.

Powerful Image Viewer. XnView MP | XnView.com

Requires a license for commercial use.

smartcooky said:

....heic or .webp files ... we use XnConvert to convert them to .jpg and remove the originals.

Perhaps it would be worth testing an alternative convertor if one exists.
- Then, if the problem remains, you'll know that this suggestion is a waste of time.
- But if the problem disappears, you'll know that something about your original convertor was causing the problem.

Best of luck,
Denis

So just clarify that the problem only exists in GDFD. If that's the case delete the desktop.ini files and see if it makes any difference. If you are worried about that then copy the images elsewhere first.

Just a guess but my thoughts are that it's either image/ thumbnail corruption or a wayward explorer shell extension.

On a working folder right click and check the context menu entries. Update any software in the list. Do the same by right clicking on working image files.

Clear and reset thumbnail databases. I usually use this but there are other methods.

Thumbnail Database Cleaner - IT Samples

My method. Use Processhacker to kill explorer and also to launch thumnail database cleaner. Clean the databases then reboot via Processhacker menu.

Other method:

Clear and Reset Thumbnail Cache in Windows 10

On another note there are umpteen reports of GDFD crashing explorer when used to browse images stored on it.

Try3 said:

Perhaps it would be worth testing an alternative convertor if one exists.
- Then, if the problem remains, you'll know that this suggestion is a waste of time.
- But if the problem disappears, you'll know that something about your original convertor was causing the problem.

Best of luck,
Denis

We have been having this problem for some time, well before I installed XnConvert.

- - - Updated - - -

Callender said:

So just clarify that the problem only exists in GDFD. If that's the case delete the desktop.ini files and see if it makes any difference. If you are worried about that then copy the images elsewhere first.

No, it doesn't just exist in GDFD but since the vast majority of our printing comes from images sourced from there (I estimate over 95%) it stands to reason that the problem will appear more when trying to open those folders.

Callender said:

Just a guess but my thoughts are that it's either image/ thumbnail corruption or a wayward explorer shell extension.

Well, that would match one of the occasions when I have had this happen to me personally while I was opening a folder outside of the printing software, using Windows Explorer. The folder opened, started displaying thumbnails, then suddenly stopped with about half the thumbnails displayed, and Win Explorer froze. At that point I used a smartphone to take a screenshot (because doing so with the the keyboard didn't work) in order to record which file it stopped on, then force rebooted the computer and tried opening the same folder again. This time, no problem.
I should point out that we have a very high turnover of folders on this computer. In GDFD, between 25 and 50 new folders are created daily, with most of them being deleted immediately after the job is printed. I was wondering if there was some store or cache of folder information that was getting too full or becoming corrupt. This is why I regularly delete all the files in %AppData%\Microsoft\Windows\Recent\AutomaticDestinations

Callender said:

On a working folder right click and check the context menu entries. Update any software in the list. Do the same by right clicking on working image files.

There are a number of things on the right click menu that I do not think need to be there; thing that have been added by software such as winRAR. I was considering actually removing many of them In teh case of winRAR, I can to that in its Settings, but not all of them are that easy.

Callender said:

Clear and reset thumbnail databases. I usually use this but there are other methods.
Thumbnail Database Cleaner - IT Samples
My method. Use Processhacker to kill explorer and also to launch thumnail database cleaner. Clean the databases then reboot via Processhacker menu.

Other method:

Clear and Reset Thumbnail Cache in Windows 10

On another note there are umpteen reports of GDFD crashing explorer when used to browse images stored on it.

I use "Thumbnail & Icon Cache Rebuilder.exe" from The Windows Club. Is that good enough?


ETA:

I tried downloading and running "Instant_Clear_and_Reset_Thumbnail_Cache.bat" but it doesn't work (cmd window says "The system cannot find the path specified".

This line doesn't look correct.

DEL /F /S /Q /A %LocalAppData%\Microsoft\Windows\Explorer\thumbcache_*.db

Is it reading "thumbcache_" as a folder in Explorer instead of a filename?

ETA2:

Figured out the issue with the batch file. My user account has a space in the name, so the pathname in the DEL line has to be in quotes...

DEL /F /S /Q /A "%LocalAppData%\Microsoft\Windows\Explorer"thumbcache_*.db

Any method to clear thumbnail cache should be fine if it works.

If you get the problem when right clicking a folder see:

Fix Slow or Freezing Right Click Context Menu in Windows

If you get the problem just by opening a folder I have other ideas and will post later.

Try setting all folders and libraries to General items template which also disables automatic folder type discovery.

It's easy to do that using Winsetview.

See option Two here:

Set Default Folder View for all Folders in Windows 10