Windows XP slow to display folders with images

XP has some good qualities, but I am mystified at one problem. Even

in List or Details view, the software seems to be reading the entire

file in order to create the icon to display (like the little Adobe

Photoshop Icon). It's bad enough in the operating system view, but

apparently some programs use that same operating system function to

display their file list. Nero for burning cds came with my system and

it literally takes several minutes to display a list (no thumbnails)

of twentyfour 4-5 MB files. The only setting I've found in the

operating system to speed up display is for animations, which I've

turned off.

Something is wrong there. I just set current directory of Windows Explorer of my WinXP system to a directory with 33-50 meg tiff files. It displayed in less than a second, in detail view. I have Pentium PII 350.

 

My "type" column in explorer identifies the file as "ACDSee TIFF Image". Does yours id as "Adobe PhotoShop something". If so, perhaps that's it.

 

You could try in Explorer pulldown Tools|Folder Options|File Types changing the association to something else, if it is associated with PhotoShop, say "Paint" or "Windows Picture and Fax Viewer", if you see those.

 

Just guessing, may work.

It's either a problem with file indexing, or preview mode in Explorer which will try and display every type of file/graphic/AV file known to man.

 

My Computer>Tools>Folder Options>Use Windows Classic folders.

Mine is set for the XP look and it only takes a few seconds to display details, thumbnails, etc. on a "old" Dell 800MHz machine.

 

IMO, something else is going on, like perhaps background indexing or defragging, or maybe a virus.

I changed the file association to the Windows file viewer and watched a bit more carefully. It's displaying a list of all the files instantly, using the file viewer icon, but it's then going back and reading each file and changing the icon to what looks like the Photoshop icon. It's creating and caching the thumbnail view, because when I switch to thumbnail view in the middle of this process all the files with the new icon already have thumbnails. I checked the task manager and it's Explorer that is doing this. This process not only cuts down the responsiveness dramatically, but makes doing anything with groups of files (like copying) difficult because I get a message that whatever file is currently being thumbnailed is in use. How do you turn off the thumbnail feature?

Might be worth trying the windows repair feature on the XP cd, as what you're experiencing doesn't seem to be a normal feature and therefore probably doesn't have a 'turn off' option.

 

A friend of mine had a similar (but nightmare) problem on Win 2000 with PS7 - he had a 400MB TIF on his desktop and windows kept trying to create a thumbnail for it, even though it was just an icon view on his desktop. The computer was effectively unusable. I'm not sure how he fixed it, but I'll try to find out what he did and post it here. I think it was a windows-reinstall.

It was 'fixed' by [irrelevant to your problem] plugging the HDD into another computer and moving the tiff out of the desktop folder (made the computer usable, though folders with images in were slow as you describe), and then [relevant to your problem but not ideal] reinstalling windows. We figured backing up his data and reinstalling windows plus photoshop (btw, it was version 6, not 7) was quicker than spending a day or two (or more!) hunting for the source of the problem.

I found the answer. Apparently Photoshop inserts a new function having to do with creating thumbnails of images that it is associated with. If you right click on a jpg or tif or similar and select Properties, you will see a tab called Photoshop Image. All you have to do is to uncheck the Generate Thumbnails box and this won't happen again for any of the filetypes that Photoshop is associate with.

 

Why do they think this is a feature?

Ahh, I get it. The file association causes PS to parse it, so if either PS or Internet Explorer get confused... you're hosed.

 

Just another reason I lock down my registry and don't let apps muck with file associations. I don't mind preview icons, but this should be part of a standardized header format.

Thanks for this post. I had the same exact problem on a fresh install of XP and PS and it was driving me mad. I finally uninstalled PS and the issue went away. I fail to see why making a file association of JPEG files with PS should cause such a slow load of thumbnails and icons but at least we have a solution.

I saw this horrible slowness in ACDSee 5.0, after upgrading my system to Windows XP Pro and Photoshop 7.0. ACDSee was essentially useless, it took so long to load a contact sheet from a folder. I was totally confused because, let's face it, this is the same hardware we're talking about!

 

The Photoshop fix discussed above fixed the problem. Thanks! What on earth was Adobe thinking? I guess they must do all their testing with 3 GHz screamin' SMP systems, or maybe Cray Supercomputers. ;-)

I think Photoshop is built for Macs and ported to the PC. There are a lot of little odd behavior issues with PCs in Photoshop. Try using a laptop with a second monitor and then going to one monitor. PS gets completely wacked out, but apparently this works just fine with the Mac laptops.

It's a bit late but luckily it was still there! You solved a problem that made me crazy ever since I changed to XP. Thanks a lot!

Thanks for this very helpful thread.

 

Thought people might like to know that the problem is NOT solved by upgrading Photoshop 7 to V7.01 but is gone in the move to the latest version - Photoshop CS.

 

Again, thanks.

 

Bob Crabtree

Computer Video magazine

I know no Bob Pert, but I am typing this on Nigel Pert's PC - which had gthe problem.

 

Bob C

Thank you John Kantor , mar 24, 2003! Such a simple solution to a problem that was driving me nuts. I use Nero6 for CD burning. When I would use it to backup my monthly image files, it would take FOREVER to display the file listing of my JPEG files. Even though it did not display the thumbnails, I guess PS was trying to do so. One click on the check box and the problem is gone. Thanks!

Ray

It is a "feature" delivered to you by Adobe. The default behavior when installing Photoshop is making ImageReady the handler for .jpg and .jpeg files. Change the filehandler back to the original and you have your old speed back. Run regedit.exe => go to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT => .jpg and then change the (default) value of the key back into "jpegfile" instead of Photoshop.JPEGFile. Restart your PC and you're in business. To help you remember what the current setting was in case you would like all the fancy file properties again, you can change the keyvalue PreviousAssocation from "jpegfile" to "Photoshop.JPEGFile".

I tried all of these tips, but nothing worked until I right-clicked on an image file and unchecked Generate Thumbnails under Properties, Photoshop Image. Thanks, John! I can't tell you how frustrating this has been, and what a relief it is now!

You guys are great

 

My spanking new, whoop-dee-doo DELL high speed desk top was making me WACKO trying to find out why my thumbnail views were loading slow, SMALL 1/4 size, as "view" icons and thumbnail fragments. Often the load was incomplete, even for only a few photo files.

 

I've spent hours with the technical software folks at Dell ... all great, but no cigar.

 

Let me add slightly more to clarify this issue. My Photoshop is 7.0, and it works just fine on all my older computers (one year or less). I installed with my original 7.0 PS disk, but the problem is on my new computer. Why? I don't know why PS loads differently on my new computer. My 1 year old Dell laptop did not have this issue.

 

Let me also clarify about "unclicking" the Photoshop "generate thumbnail" option when viewing file properties on the new Phtotshop tab that has appeared: ... I was concerned that I would have to find out how to unclick EVERY photo file ... NO! .. I only unclicked one photo file, and the problem was solved. Every other photo file I opened to examine in Properties, was now unclicked.

 

So simple. It was absolutely the issue that srewed up loading of XP thumbnails. The new "Photoshop Image" tab under file properties seems to have no other purpose, except to display a path to the file.

I know this is setting a record for the wayyyyy latest answers ever and I apologise, but I have been having the same kind of bad performance issue.

 

I have been using Windows XP and Adobe Photoshop 6 on two computers now and have had the same absurd performance issues sorting through my images using Windows Explorer. Even in list view, the list would take forever to load and would balk or crash if I tried to end the process. Even with a folder with maybe 20 images it might take a couple of minutes just to display the normal small icons, and several minutes to display thumbnails, if that didn't crash the machine utterly.

 

It's been making me crazy.

 

May I offer a terribly belated Thanks to eveyone here for providing an answer?

 

I had even downloaded three different file manager programs to speed up my work with image files and folders - settling upon XYPlorer - which does a few things a heck of a lot better than Explorer, and none worse. For some reason it seems immune to the "generate thumbnail" glitch. It's waaaay better at providing a preview at near full screen size - just right click on a thumb and up pops a big preview. Not to be an ad for one or another program, but I'm going to do the full purchase on this one. So, this Adobe bug has had one positive outcome, my discovery of better file managers for Windows. I'm a bit slow, repeatedly forgetting how many people write good utilities.

 

I had thought the issue was with Windows and Windows Explorer, and am relieved to find the issue is for once not of M$ft's making. What the heck is Adobe thinking? This one stupid glitch has eaten quite a number of hours of waiting for lists to populate, finding workarounds, rebooting the computer after crashes...

 

I was going to write a cranky message to Adobe here, but I suspect I would end up ranting uselessly so I'll just implore Adobe and all software people to note that user friendliness and dependability trump bells and whistles every time. A bug may just be a part of your job, but it destroys our workdays.