explorer.exe opens slowly

Question

explorer.exe opens veeeery slow when I press [Win+R] key or type "explorer ." in command prompt etc. But it opens with normal speed when I just click on the shortcut to any folder. When I click on the URL in IM like ICQ, already openned browser (firefox) takes too long to process link too. I have this problem for some months and I'm very tired of this.

OS: WinXP SP3.

Answer 1

I can think of a couple of possible reasons off the top of my head:

1. Do you have any mapped network drives? If so, it may take quite long to reach, enumerate them, or timeout if they're not there.
2. Are you using any Shell extension? There are several, like the one that calculates folder sizes, or Tortoise SVN that slow Explorer considerably.
3. Do you have any serial or USB1 connected devices?
4. Finally, I don't want to rule out malware/virus. Check the machine.

One final thing to try: start the machine in safe mode and check if it still happens.