Freezing Windows Picture & Fax Viewer

September 5, 2006 5:52 PM

Everytime i preview a JPG stored on my Windows XP desktop my whole PC freezes up for around 10 seconds...usually longer.

if I open a JPG in My Documents (using the preview application by default) it opens instantly.

If i copy the same JPG to my Desktop and do the same it takes 10sec+ to open. it freezes up while displaying "Generating preview". It becomes completely unresponsive.

if i copy the JPG into a new folder on my Desktop, it opens quick as a flash.

if i copy the same file back to My Documents (or any other folder) it opens normally once still.

All other files seem to open just fine. Whats going on?

posted by lemonfridge to Computers & Internet (4 answers total)

How many files are in the desktop folder?
posted by internal at 6:48 PM on September 5, 2006

Best answer: Amazing, I just had an email from a non-mefite,

I'm attempting to contact you via your website as I do not have an account on Metafilter.

The freezing you get when viewing image files is symptomatic of a broken/dead shortcut link within the same directory. I would recheck all your shortcuts to see that they are properly linked, and delete the ones no longer used. This should fix the problem.

Best of luck,

Will

Turns out I had a shortcut to my iBook on my desktop. Its rarely connected, so most of the time its a dead link. I deleted it and hy presto, everything works fine again!

(windows pisses me off sometimes it REALLY does)
posted by lemonfridge at 1:44 AM on September 6, 2006

Will should get an account on Mefi. ;)
posted by gregschoen at 3:10 AM on September 6, 2006

Response by poster: Im purchasing him one :)
posted by lemonfridge at 4:47 AM on September 6, 2006