slow windows desktop keyboard shortcuts

Question

I've got a couple of shortcuts on my desktop and on some of them I've configured the "Shortcut key" to a keyboard combination. For example I have a shortcut pointing to d:\documents\todo.txt and I've set Shift + Alt + T. This naturally opens up using notepad.

Double clicking on the icon always opens up the text file immediately. Using the keyboard shortcut though is sometimes very (5-10 seconds) slow. Note that during that time CPU utilization does not rise.

This happens to all my machines (both old and new ultra fast boxes) in Windows XP (various versions) and Windows 7.

There are tons of questions about this but no solution.

Is there an explanation and solution to this problem?

Edit: The behavior is not consistent. I have 30 desktop shortcut and 5 of them have keyboard shortcuts assigned. I'm not interested in software alternatives for this windows functionality. I want to know what the problem is and how to solve it.

Answer 1

I cannot reproduce your problem and do not remember having it on any of my computers. I do not notice any difference to opening a shortcut by clicking. I have only very few of these shortcuts, though, 2 tops.

• Is there a software that listens for hotkeys that is installed on all your rigs? Maybe this causes shortcuts to be recognized slowly? It could be any app with global hotkeys. You'd have to manually close them one by one to see if it makes any difference.
• How many shortcuts do have? 10, 20, 30? If you have many, it could also mean slower reaction time.

To speed things up: You could try using a third party software for managing your shortcuts (like AutoHotkey, PhraseExpress or Clavier+ (all of which are available as aportable app). Hopefully, they will work faster. I am using them anyway and keep them on a flash drive to use on multiple computers.

Answer 2

I'm having the same issue. I have a pile of shorcuts in my quicklaunch bar, and just 1 has a windows shortcut key setup... alt+ctrl+shift+s. This has been instantaneous until recently. I get the same 5-10 second slowdown that the other user is reporting.

Another detail I've noticed... while the stall is happening, all of my quicklaunch and buttonbar icons cease working during this period. their mouseover highlights no longer occur. Clicking on applications during this stall period does not give forward/focus to the app during the stall, but once the stall releases and my batch file goes... then app button that I clicked will come forward and it will get focus.