Faster browsing in Windows Explorer

One thing good about Vista is the explorer that is now updated. It's got quite a few smarts that I've come to love. However, this also means that it doesn't always load as quickly as Windows XP explorer would. Here's how to speed up Windows explorer.

Note: Many of these tweaks can make Vista explorer quite a plain Jane, however, not all may need to be turned off/on all the time as performance improvements only depends on what you are doing in the Vista Explorer at a particular time.

To access Folder Options...

1. Open a folder, click on Organize and then click Folder and Search Options.


2. Now click on the View tab.

3. Apply any or all tweaks below to speed up browsing in Windows explorer by click on/off the check mark associated with the tweak.

4. Click OK when done.

Always show icons, never thumbnails

It's pretty easy to understand what this does. Vista Explorer will not spend time trying to render thumbnails of photos or videos; it will simply generate them as icons. This will substantially decrease the folder load time taken to show icons on screen. Again you'll only notice the difference when opening such folders.

Display file icon on thumbnails

This will not matter if you've turned off thumbnails. Nevertheless, the tweak can minimally help loading thumbnails faster as Vista does not have to spend time looking for what icon is associated with the file type. Personally I prefer this on.

Display file size information in folder tips

This can be applied in Windows XP as well. The setting tells explorer to calculate and show how file size of the object selected. You can shave a few processor cycles off if this is turned off, but seriously with dual-core processors and quad-core processors available today, I doubt it really matters.

Hide extensions of known file types

Turning off this setting can speed up explorer browsing, especially if you've several files of different extensions in one folder. What vista tries to do is apply a mask on the extensions that are known by Windows; the ones which are not are left as it is. I keep this setting off in Vista explorer, as not only for a little speed boost but also because I like to know what file type I'm opening as well as Vista's new capability to rename files without touching the extensions.

Remember each folder's view settings

Windows remembers each folder's view settings which includes all the little nuances that you may have set such as order type, icon positions, etc. However, to load this template can take a bit of a time depending on the folder, contents, etc. This can be speeded up by turning off the view settings and keeping only one view setting for all folders.

Show pop-up description for folder and desktop items

This pop-up description is not the same as showing file size information, but rather any textual (meta) information that may've been inputted. Again turning this off will prompt Windows not to bother looking for this type of info.

Show preview handlers in preview pane

This can have a noticeable impact especially in folders where loads of photos and videos are stored. Previews of videos impact the system considerably more than still photos.