Saving to Desktop is hit or miss

margrave55 · 08 Aug 2017

I have a problem that manifests on both my work laptop (Lenovo T450, an oldie) and my new high-end Dell desktop (Dell XPS 8920).

I'll save to Desktop a file (from Excel, or an email attachment). Or I'll save a download to Desktop from a web browser (usually Firefox, sometimes IE).

Sometimes the file will save, but VERY SLOWLY, even if it's a tiny file. The app is unresponsive until the errant save has completed. I'll have this problem for a while, and then at some random later date it will go away ... and then come back later. Other times it's fast. I get this only on the laptop.

Sometimes the saved file is empty/0 bytes when saving from the browser ... and the browser Downloads panel says "failed". (Saving instead to the Downloads folder works fine. Always, I think.)

Sometimes the file saves but I have no permission to access it. I have to change its properties (take ownership and grant full access).

And sometimes it all works fine without intervention.

It's more frequent on the work laptop. My IT guy at work says that Windows 10 has problems saving to Desktop, but he does not know why (or does not say why).

I never saw this behavior on Windows 7.

TairikuOkami · 09 Aug 2017

I use desktop as a downloads folder without problems on multiple computers. I remember that issue, when 0KB takes like 5-10 seconds to copy, it is not just desktop related. Default Windows 10 config is slow. I can not really say, which settings are the cause, there are tons of them, like a network discovery.

You might try some explorer related tweaks for starters, like:

Code:

reg add "HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer" /v "DesktopProcess" /t REG_DWORD /d "1" /f
reg add "HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced" /v "SeparateProcess" /t REG_DWORD /d "1" /f
reg add "HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced" /v "SharingWizardOn" /t REG_DWORD /d "0" /f
reg add "HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\OperationStatusManager" /v "ConfirmationCheckBoxDoForAll" /t REG_DWORD /d "1" /f
reg add "HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\OperationStatusManager" /v "EnthusiastMode" /t REG_DWORD /d "0" /f
reg add "HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced" /v "ShowSyncProviderNotifications" /t REG_DWORD /d "0" /f

margrave55 said:

Sometimes the file saves but I have no permission to access it. I have to change its properties (take ownership and grant full access).

In case of permissions problems try this.

Code:

takeown /s %computername% /u %username% /f "%SystemDrive%\Users\Public\Desktop" /r /d y
icacls "%SystemDrive%\Users\Public\Desktop" /inheritance:r /grant:r %username%:(OI)(CI)F /t /l /q /c

takeown /s %computername% /u %username% /f "%USERPROFILE%\Desktop" /r /d y
icacls "%USERPROFILE%\Desktop" /inheritance:r /grant:r %username%:(OI)(CI)F /t /l /q /c

swarfega · 09 Aug 2017

So you did an in-place upgrade from 7 to 10? This method seems to cause so many issues for users. I always tell people who have done this upgrade to do a clean format install if they possibly can afterwards to mitigate these types of issues. I know its drastic, but you'l be pleased with the end result.

margrave55 · 09 Aug 2017

No, neither of the computers is a Win 7 upgrade.