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Fix slow opening of my computer in Win Xp and delayed contents display.

If you are encountering the one of the most common problem of slow opening of my computer in windows xp and contents of my computer as a result display very lately then you will be surprised to know that your computer is not old or slow but there is simple fix to this problem.

Why Does My computer opens slowly ?

The main reason behind is the default option being checked in windows xp to search for network drives and printers every time you open my computer and there may be network drives which are being accessed when you open my computer.

How to Speed up My Computer Opening

1. Open My computer>>File Menu>>Tools>>Folder Options >>View

2. Uncheck the first checkbox which says "Automatically search for Network folders and printers"

3. You can also simply Disconnect the Map drives to solve this issue,

Go to Tools>>Disconnect the Map Drives(Network Drives) and select the network drive to disconnect.

Updated on 27 May 2008: 

As suggested by one of the reader Zamora525 another reason behind slow opening of your my computer may be due to a windows service called ‘windows image acuisitions (WIA)’ – Provides image acquisition services for scanners and cameras.

You need to stop it by the commands given below.

1. Open Start >> Run or press window+r

2. type net stop "Windows Image Acquisition (WIA)"

You can also disable the service by following the procedure given below

1. Open Start >> Run or press window+r

2. type services.msc and press enter

3. Now locate the Windows Image Acquisition (WIA) among the services and right click on it to select  properties.

Now Stop the service if it is already running by clicking the stop button and select the startup type for the service as disabled. (as shown in the image below)

stop-disable-windows-image-acquisition

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks Zamora525

Note: If still after doing these things your my computer opens slow please leave a comment here, I will help you in that case.

48 replies on “Fix slow opening of my computer in Win Xp and delayed contents display.”

Hi Abhi

Please also provide the snap-shots for such settings as it makes the understanding really fast.

Nice article.
🙂

Hi Abhi,

Thanks for these tips,and i want to share my problem like when i m opening my Laptop mt ltop found new hardware printer even i never connected with my ltop.
please help me to resolve this prob

Hi Abhi,
My computer sometimes takes as much as 15 to 20 seconds to open My Computer. I tried the suggestions you had for detecting network drives and that did not work. I do have an HP2860 All In One. Could a setting or something with that printer be causing this.

Please let me know if you have any ideas

Hi, your tip appears to have solved my problem – thanks. FYI, I am on a laptop that goes back and forth from work to home. At work, everything is fine. At home, however, My Computer takes forever to display the contents, particularly if I am not connected via VPN. I used both of the fixes described above, but it appears that un-mapping the network drives was the primary cure. Thanks again.

I have a end user that it takes 2 minutes to open My Computer! Connected or not to the network it is the same, I unchecked the search for folders and printers option, he uses the network drives, check for viruses, none found, removed the CD/DVD drive, still the same.
This is on windows XP, SP2.
Any ideas?

I need to know why when I try to go to the You Tube website, explorer closes with a window that says you tube is banned, not by the administrator, guess who? I can’t get on it, can anyone help?

I have unchecked Automatically search for Network folders and printers” but still i facing same problem.

try to stop the Windows Image Acquisition from services and change the startup type to manual for the same service

I tried what was suggested with no luck. When I open up my computer it looks like its looking for network drives like you say. It takes forever to load and when it finally does it no longer has those lines that use to seperate things like cd drives and hard drives. I have a fresh install and only had this problem after I did all the updates. However I’m not sure what update caused the problem. Any help would be appreciated.

your tips are good and all but i found another way to fix mycomputer from opening up slowly

go to control panels
admin tools
services
and disable windows image acuisitions (WIA)

to 30 days to figure but it works

When I double click the ‘My Computer’ icon, it opens up pretty fast but takes some time to display the info in My Computer folder (the torchligh icons appears as if it’s searching for something). While it’s doing the searching, if I click ‘my documents’, the file info in my documents folder will appear immediately. However, when I click back the ‘My computer’ folder, it’s searching again and will take sometime to display the file/disk info.

I’ve tried disconneting the network drive as you suggested, but it didnt work … appreciate your help .. Thanks ..

dear my toshiba u300 is still facing the same problem i have tried all the mentioned above triks but still same problem persists……further more i have removed all the spy bots by using the bot remover software also …i didnt even install a single software on my system but sitll its slow while on the same machine i have windows vista ( dual boot ) but its working like dreams….

any idea…. !! specially abhi please do suggest some ting…….my system is just freshly installed by my self by slip streaming…my own xp CD

Only Zamora525’s tip worked…nothing else worked…also u need to disable ‘automatic’ function in properties for ‘windows image acuisitions (WIA)’
otherwise it will restart on closing the window and now ‘my computer’ opens fast…like instantly….thanks Zamora525.

The second half of the Zamora tip works: go to services, stop the WIA and set it’s startup to disabled. The ‘net stop …’ command didn’t work for me ( probably stopped the service but it immediatly started itself again when i opened a new “my computer” ). Eternal thanks!

Dear Sir,

I am using win xp and when i connect to network files on my desktop or in my computer like pdf or open office files opens very slowly but when i disabled the network connection it opens faster. pls provide the solution

@Ganesh Satonkar – when you enable your network connection your network drives enumerates them selves by connecting to the network resources.

this is a windows issue will let you know if i found a solution for this.

By Post Author

I wonder if this might help my problem that’s only occured in the past week or 2. Suddenly opening My Computer (where you see all your drives and space free) is slow, takes upto 5 seconds to show. On SATA/300mb’s and a Quad Core surely this shouldn’t happen at all, and if so it’d happen from the moment I installed Vista right? Not suddenly within the last few weeks.

“My Computer” will open slowly if a drive is going bad. One day you’ll notice your drive is dead. Replace it and all will be well.

programs are opening slow, when lan is disabled but if disable lan the programs opens fast, i have installed kaspersky antivirus and checked for the virus but no infection is there. any solutions pls mail me to my e-mail id

please help me…. very urgent.

programs/files are opening slowly when connected in a network. But if you unplugged the cable, the program/files works so fast. I have a symantec anti-virus connected in my laptop….

thanks….

My system was running great until I upgraded ZoneAlarmSecuritySuite version 8.
NOW VSMON.EXE is hogging resources like there is no tomorrow….any help with this one??

When I double click the ‘My Computer’ icon, it opens up pretty fast but takes some time to display the info in My Computer folder (the torchligh icons appears as if it’s searching for something). While it’s doing the searching, if I click ‘my documents’, the file info in my documents folder will appear immediately. However, when I click back the ‘My computer’ folder, it’s searching again and will take sometime to display the file/disk info. Sometimes after the flashlight stops its just a empy box like there are no drives on my comp

I’ve tried disconneting the network drive as you suggested, but it didnt work … appreciate your help .. Thanks .

Zamora525 OR ANYONE ELSE THAT CAN HELP ME !

My email address is: ambitious_1@hotmail.com I’m also having trouble with the “My Computer” icon showing available drive content (takes about 3 minutes form the time I double click it)…

I see the comments about disabling WIA but I’m concerned abou that screwing up the function on my all-in-one printer/scanner device. Can anyone comment on that for me? Will disabling WIA also disable or impede my HP Photosmart C7250 All-in-One Printer/scanner/fax/copier from functioning properly?? Thanks so much… Joe

Hi everybody,

i got problem to open the document very slow. It should be the user account corrupted. Try to create new user account then log on new user account and try to open the folder or document see it’s working faster or not.I solved my problem by changing user account. Good Luck to all of you.

It works only for those who have programs/files are opening slowly when connected in a network. But if you unplugged the cable, the program/files works so fast.Hopefully it solves others problem too

“worked great” I wasn’t really concerned with opening times but came across this info while browsing. I do this for a living and have never in all my courses and tests for certifications seen this info I applied it to my home desktop to try it and wow. I would say to users that still have this issue after appling these steps to keep searching there are many processes that will cause this type of behavior. You might just go through each one and look it up to see what it does and if you don’t need it to start automatically set to manual if yo don’t need it disable it.
Thanks

Kudos to Zamora! I began having this problem after installing a new DVD-ROM drive. Her fix got me back to normal.

Our knowledge about computers is low. Our computer opening and working is very slow. Even internet running is also very slow and frequently remains hanged.Even while typing in MS-Word letters/sentences appear after a gap of time on punching the keys.Please help.
Another serious problem. By bad luck, we had downloaded ‘Uniblue Registry Booster 2009’. This programme is scanning and advising ‘to purchase full version on line’. We donot have financial resources to purchase. We have deleted the programme from desk top and recycle-bin. But programme-icon is forcibly existing on right-hand side of Start-button-Bar and remains repeatedly scanning forcibly, repeatedly forcing to purchase.It is not getting deleated from Start-button-Bar. Please help to get rid-of this undesirable-programme.
Please help.

As given by the above steps I did made the changes. But still while Right clicking My Computer and Selecting Properties. It opens very slowly..Guide me what should I do..

Disabling windows image acuisitions (WIA) as per Zamora525’s advice worked for me. It also stopped a whole heap of ‘svchost’ error messages from popping up all the time. Thank you Zamora525!

dear Sir
when i am connect my laptop with ethernet cable and open in my
computer its containt very delay.
could you give me the soultion for this problem.

only disabling the service “Windows Image Acquisition (WIA)” worked for me cause it restarts when you open “my computer” again. Now it opens instantly…..BUT WHY?????? and can it be left disabled?

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