But what causes a slow Windows Explorer? An application server or domain controller was probably moved out of the network or there are settings on your file server that was moved to a new IP address. It also depends on different things like virus or spyware. It is possible that your Windows have errors or you installed new programs that causes it to be slow. You can know the real problem with your CPU by using the task Manager. Then run an anti-spy tool. If it is not necessary, do not reformat or it will just make your problem worse.

You will realize that you are having a slow Windows Explorer if there is a gap of about ten to fifteen seconds before a file opens. There is a similar pause of about ten to fifteen seconds before the context menu appears when you right-click on files in the local system. If the computer is disconnected from the network, all delays disappear.

There is a program called 'unlocker', which cracks the lockout on files so it is possible to be moved again. But 'unlocker has an inconvenience. If you use it to more than two files in each boot, you will soon find your explorer begins to collapse and this will start to make your Windows Explorer slow. Because of this, opening just one folder will take you for about five minutes. Well, you can actually repair this problem by quitting explorer and opening it again with the Task Manager. But you do not want to do that ten or fifteen times a day, do you?

A different way to fix a slow Windows explorer is by right clicking on the start menu and then opening maybe five to ten 'explore all users'. You must do it rapidly, one after the other. This method will secure the problem for about five minutes. But then, it will begin the problem again.

Another good idea is to disconnect from the network. If your taskbar has a shortcut to a network item, delete the taskbar shortcut. It will fix the problem.

If these methods do not fix your slow Windows Explorer, you can try these:

*Open a command prompt then use the netstat -an command. You will see the list of machines you have connections to.

*Then go to Explorer and open a file.

*Run netstat -an again while waiting for the file to open and look for new entries.

*The IP address that is on the left is the local machine's address while the IP address on the right is the machine, which it is trying to connect to. You must copy this IP address without the port number and then search for it with regedit.