windows xp search windows takes ages to appear ?

[exxos]

This has been driving me nuts for the past few weeks.

Basically, if I click the start menu, click seach, file & folders, the search window comes up right away, it all works fine.

However, when i right click on a folder, and select search from the menu, it takes at least 20 seconds to appear, in fact in some cases it can take 60seconds or more to appear, when it finally appears it works as normal.

My XP rig has been running for god knows how many years and only just ran into this problem. I can only assume some program I have installed of late is causing the problem, but even after uninstalling everything I think ive installed of late, still no luck.

i've been on google looking for help with this issues, seems a lot ofpeople have problems, but not my exact problem, so after trying all the "fixes" they suggest, nothing has worked.

So thought I throw this one "out there" to see if anyone has any ideas or had this exact problem before, or has any clues on how I can find out what is causing the thing to hang only when loaded from the right click menu....


The odd thing is, nothing is pulling any amount of CPU power either, so its like its waiting 30 seconds for something which does not happen, I am assuming something times out after 30 seconds. Though it hangs explorer up totally until the search window appears. baffeling 

[exxos]

Its looking like its the "anti-rootKit" thing in AVG causing the problem, AVG always seem to have some issue with something or another, can anyone recommend a "good" anti-virus program ? I am running super anti-spyware aswell, one or the other seem to pickup on problems, but AVG seems to have issues a lot

I uninstalled AVG for now, though now, the first time you click the search button, it takes ages to come up, but if you click search again after closing it, it comes up right away, you can do this as many times as you want, but if you close it for a few seconds and then search again, it takes ages to come up again, so something else iffy somewhere too 

[Simon]

If you want free, I've seen Avast recommended quite a bit.  If you want a non-free Internet Security suite, I'm currently using Kaspersky without any issues.  Oh, and by the way...

However, when i right click on a folder, and select search from the menu, it takes at least 20 seconds to appear, in fact in some cases it can take 60seconds or more to appear, when it finally appears it works as normal.

Well I'll be buggered!  In as many years as XP has been around, I never knew you could do that!   

[Lance]

I use MIcrosoft Security Essentials on my Windows 7 machines without problem, and have the business grade Microsoft Forefront Protection on my work laptop running XP.

[exxos]

If you want free, I've seen Avast recommended quite a bit.  If you want a non-free Internet Security suite, I'm currently using Kaspersky without any issues.  Oh, and by the way...

Well I'll be buggered!  In as many years as XP has been around, I never knew you could do that!   

[exxos]

I use MIcrosoft Security Essentials on my Windows 7 machines without problem, and have the business grade Microsoft Forefront Protection on my work laptop running XP.

 

Well on XP... I installed it tonight, ran the scans and updated it etc, no problem, rebooted my machine and it bluescreened just as it got to desktop, happend 4 times and i used the "boot with last good settings" thing, XP booted up fine and disabled security essentials! I uninstalled it and my blue screens went away. Microsofts new method to prevent security risks must be not to let the pc boot up in the first place, 100% secure i guess!

As a update to my problem, it now seems acronis 2012 was to blame, it seems it added something screwy in the menu causing dllhost.exe to load ( *shrugs*) , however while waiting for the search to appear, i end tasked it, and search came up right away, i did this several times. Also I forgot to mention "open with" option used to take a long time also. I notice if I right clicked on C drive and clicked search , the window came up right away, so after some deductions, only acronics was different.. 2 new settings in the menu. After trying regedit to remove them, they were not even listed, baffeling as it is, i think they must have used a winhook which screwed up a lot of stuff. I know in my VB6 days people said never ever use them. Not saying acronis did, but going by the amount of faffing about I can only assume they did something nasty.

My search box seems to run fine now, finally.. seesh, aronics 2009 used to crash now and then, but 2012 is just junk, now i read all over good how much people hate it. its taken me the past hour to uninstall the thing and the uninstaller kept crashing, and they did a new uninstaller which came up lots of errors and didn't do a very good job.

I have noticed my pc run a whole lot faster now, i suspect its because ive uninstalled AVG.. will resinstall it and see how it goes.. i guess ill put back acronics 2009.. or see if they did a updated version that fixed old bug before they screwed it up totally with the 2012 version....

[Technical Ben]

XP use to run so slow with Virus scanners, I use to install them to connect to the net, then uninstall once I was off. Was still quicker than waiting for XP to do it's thing with the scanner running. 

[armadillo]

can anyone recommend a "good" anti-virus program ? I am running super anti-spyware aswell

First of all, anyone's recommendation on this forum, my own included, for a good AV, is purely anecdotal. All an individual's recommendation means is that they are not aware of having had a problem with it on their particular machine with their particular mix of installed software and with the malware which they happen to have been exposed to.

All AVs cause problems on someone's machine with someone's mix of software. My own AV caused a problem with XP SP3 on connection of an external USB HDD - as it did for many such users until the manufacturer corrected it. But I still trust it, find it has little impact on my other processes and gives me no reason to seek to replace it with something else.

If you want an objective view you have to look at independent reviews with statistically significant tests. If you do that, you will see there is no significant difference between the top 10 products, in which AVG, MSE, Avast, Kaspersky, ESET, BitDefender and others are included.

If you view the forums of any major product, you will see reports of blue screens, slowings, incompatibilities, missed viruses and other problems. All you can do is pick one whose interface you like and which seems to work well on your machine with your software mix.

Secondly, you say you are running super-anti-spyware as well. Whatever manufacturers claim, I do not believe that it is sensible to run more than one real-time protection. There will be forum members who violently disagree with me because they have not experienced problems when doing so. Again read "anecdotal".

Thirdly, antimalware can be extremely difficult to uninstall. Sometimes, the uninstall process leaves behind drivers which load with Windows. Sometimes, shared files are replaced with one from the vendor and then cannot be removed because they are shared and cannot be reinstated to the original version because the install process never backed this up. Sometimes registry entries are altered and cannot easily be traced to the product being uninstalled and hence cannot be cleaned by registry cleaners.

If Acronis have messed up it is likely that they will be aware and will eventually fix the problem. If you believe their software is the cause of your problem, it would be worth posting on the Acronis forums.

[Simon]

All good points, Armadillo. 

[gyruss]

See if you've got a ton of old links set up inside your 'my network places'... and prune them out.

Might be this, causes slowness in browsing and searching on machines that have been running for quite some time.