I'm looking for the cause of poor performance in MS Windows Explorer
aka "File Explorer".  For example, a (2 second-plus) delay in
switching to/from directories exists in Microsoft's version of this
tool; however, if I download an alternate client (such as XPlorer), it
works immediately.

I have a clean system (firewalled, Microsoft Antispyware proofed,
PestPatrol spyware proofed, nothing running in my startup, nothing
extra in my task list, etc).

I've read accusations of this being related to Adobe tools.  This
might be relevant since I only have a few very reliable programs
installed (MS Office, VB.Net) and Adobe CS Suite, and it's a clean
install with no shareware/extraneous add-ons.

Any ideas on how to improve this problem?  Thank you!

I had the same problem on a brand new computer after installing the
same software I have on my old computer. I started digging into the
matter and found that the process explorer.exe (can be seen in the
task manager) does a lot of reading on the disk whenever you change
directories in "windows explorer". By adding the column "I/O Read
Bytes" in the task manager, I found that explorer.exe read somewhere
between 200 and 600 MB every time I changed directories which could
explain why it took a couple of seconds. I searched the web for help,
but found nothing that fixed the problem.
So I used system restore to get the computer back in a state from
before the problem appeared and started reinstalling everything and
checking when the problem reappeared. It turned out to be NeroVision
Express that was the problem. It was version 3.0.1.27 which is
currently the newest one. After uninstalling it, the problem
dissappeared again. So untill they come up with an updated version, I
can live without it.

HTH :-)

This is a great tip.  I run Nero on some systems (not this particular
one) and what you mention is 100% correct!  I want to leave the issue
open for more ideas, but if you send a paypal address to me at:
rusten2 (at yahoo.com, un-formatted to stave spam) I'll send a token
of my appreciation!

Thanks again!

To others -- any other ideas on what could be causing Explorer to
pause when navigating new directories, despite this being a quick
operation on non-MS explorer tools that do the same thing, even on a
relatively vanilla install (only apps: VB.Net, Adobe
CS/Photoshop/etc)?

I also have this problem on a brand new computer and I found this:

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=873414

Here's the vital part:
---cut-here---
This problem occurs if the folder contains many subfolders and files
and if these subfolders also contain many subfolders and files.
---cut-here---

...and the funny part:
---cut-here---
To resolve this problem immediately, contact Microsoft Product Support
Services to obtain the hotfix.
---cut-here---

So, they have the hotfix, but it's probably so unstable that they
won't go public with it. You have to get used to it (and wait for it
to be fixed in SP3), or use some other software. Sorry for the bad
news.

Hi Thorgi--
Great information, thank you.  In this case, it's not directories with
many files/folders.  Regardless, I've given up hope on SP's fixing my
MS Windows problems, although I did hang on to that hope for several
years over several different versions ;-).

Many thanks, movanovich! I had just installed NeroVision Express and
that was indeed the culprit. I had also made numerous tweaks to my
system the same day I put in Nero so I was having a tough time
locating the source of that very annoying problem. Thanks again!

Don

I don't even have Nero, so what's my problem?