Why are windows shortcuts so dang slow?
March 3, 2024 10:32 PM Subscribe
When I map a desktop shortcut to a folder or file, like Control + ] to open my F:\ drive, it takes several seconds for Windows 10 to react. My PC works normally and pretty reliably, tons of RAM and HD space. Is there some way to speed this up?
Do the built-in Windows shortcuts have the desired speed for you? For example, Windows-E brings up Explorer instantly for me. I haven't tried to create custom shortcuts yet, so will watch other answers with interest.
posted by snarfois at 4:28 AM on March 4
posted by snarfois at 4:28 AM on March 4
So I tried myself to see what happens - to eliminate virus scanners and drive sleeping etc I just made a shortcut to cmd.exe, and sure enough it took between 3 and 8 seconds to start.
Searching the web you can find reputable sources saying that it can be caused because windows has to ask every running program "Is this your shortcut?" - however after testing this theory by using a script to send WM_GETHOTKEY to all the running windows it didn't seem to be the case for me.
Then I found some other answers pointing to a problem with suspended metro applications - looking in task manager details page there were a few including calculator and when I terminated them the shortcut keys went back to being instant (if you open the details page in task manager and sort by the status column, you will see them as "Suspended").
After a few minutes "System Settings" reappeared as a suspended task and shortcuts went back to being slow until I killed it. Going into Settings -> Background Apps and turning off "Let apps run in the background" seems to have stopped it from coming back.
posted by samj at 4:45 AM on March 4 [12 favorites]
Searching the web you can find reputable sources saying that it can be caused because windows has to ask every running program "Is this your shortcut?" - however after testing this theory by using a script to send WM_GETHOTKEY to all the running windows it didn't seem to be the case for me.
Then I found some other answers pointing to a problem with suspended metro applications - looking in task manager details page there were a few including calculator and when I terminated them the shortcut keys went back to being instant (if you open the details page in task manager and sort by the status column, you will see them as "Suspended").
After a few minutes "System Settings" reappeared as a suspended task and shortcuts went back to being slow until I killed it. Going into Settings -> Background Apps and turning off "Let apps run in the background" seems to have stopped it from coming back.
posted by samj at 4:45 AM on March 4 [12 favorites]
Best answer: I don't have the answer to your question, but as an alternative, I use the third-party utility AutoHotKey for custom shortcuts and never have issues with delays.
posted by nanny's striped stocking at 7:56 AM on March 4 [3 favorites]
posted by nanny's striped stocking at 7:56 AM on March 4 [3 favorites]
I just happened across this thread on Twitter, which I thought might be relevant: TIL why Windows Explorer is sometimes inexplicably slow when opening folders
posted by snarfois at 7:01 AM on March 18
posted by snarfois at 7:01 AM on March 18
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posted by LoveHam at 4:23 AM on March 4 [1 favorite]