Will a large number of shortcuts slow XP performance?

[Guest]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.perform_maintain (More info?)

Because of the way I work, my XP NTFS system has a very large number of
shortcuts. (I really need a semantic network file system.)

Lately I've noticed some peculiar performance delays. The Favorites
view, for example, has many shortcuts in it. They can take up to a
minute to resolve fully into folders, until then they display a generic
IE icon. When saving using a shortcut, the system can halt for some
time. During these halts task manager shows no particular activity.
It's like a thread has been stopped.

I wonder if I'm running into some limit on the number of shortcuts XP
can handle. Once upon a time shortcuts were pretty simple minded and
could not impact performance, but I've wondered if XP may be doing some
things to try to make them behave more like Mac aliases (which in the
Mac Classic world were marvelous and had true indirection) -- including
sometimes updating them dynamically.

Is there anything possibly to this? A google search didn't turn
anything up.

john
jfaughnan@spamcop.net

meta: jfaughnan, NTFS, shortcut, XP, shortcut, aliases, performance,
refresh, display, resolve

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.perform_maintain (More info?)

I would recommend performing some computer housecleaning
maintenance:

Download the thirty day trial version of System Mechanic and
scan your computer for 'Junk Files', then 'Find and Fix Broken Shortcuts'.
http://www.iolo.com/sm/5/index.cfm

System Mechanic Optimization Tools
http://www.iolo.com/sm/5/index.cfm#optimize

Then perform the following:

Download Ad-aware SE and scan your PC for the presence of sp­yware:
http://www.download.com/3000-2144-10045910.html?part=69274&subj=dlpage&tag=button

Symantec Security Check
http://security.symantec.com/ssc/home.asp?langid=ie&venid=sym&plfid=23&pkj=FTPSUQIZQVMUYTACDCO

Microsoft Windows AntiSpyware
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=321cd7a2-6a57-4c57-a8bd-dbf62eda9671&displaylang=en

3 Simple Steps to Help Ensure the Protection of Your PC
http://www.microsoft.com/athom­e/security/protect/default.msp­x

Utilize the following maintenance programs, at least monthly,
to maintain the optimum performance of Windows XP:

Description of the Disk Cleanup Tool in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;310312&Product=winxp

How to Perform Disk Error Checking in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;315265&Product=winxp

HOW TO: Analyze and Defragment a Disk in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;305781&Product=winxp

--
Carey Frisch
Microsoft MVP
Windows XP - Shell/User
Microsoft Newsgroups

Get Windows XP Service Pack 2 with Advanced Security Technologies:
http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/protect/windowsxp/choose.mspx

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"John Faughnan" wrote:

| Because of the way I work, my XP NTFS system has a very large number of
| shortcuts. (I really need a semantic network file system.)
|
| Lately I've noticed some peculiar performance delays. The Favorites
| view, for example, has many shortcuts in it. They can take up to a
| minute to resolve fully into folders, until then they display a generic
| IE icon. When saving using a shortcut, the system can halt for some
| time. During these halts task manager shows no particular activity.
| It's like a thread has been stopped.
|
| I wonder if I'm running into some limit on the number of shortcuts XP
| can handle. Once upon a time shortcuts were pretty simple minded and
| could not impact performance, but I've wondered if XP may be doing some
| things to try to make them behave more like Mac aliases (which in the
| Mac Classic world were marvelous and had true indirection) -- including
| sometimes updating them dynamically.
|
| Is there anything possibly to this? A google search didn't turn
| anything up.
|
| john

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.perform_maintain (More info?)

Thanks! I ended up disabling repair of broken shortcuts:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;299780&sd=tech

This seems to have done the trick, my system performance is fine and
the shortcuts now display properly. I think I might have overwhelmed
XP's ability to do shorcut maintenance. NTFS really needs a true file
identifier, and the ability to lookup a file location from the
identifier. I guess we'll get in Longhorn the capabilities that MacOS
Classic had in 1986 (thought OS X, with its unix roots, doesn't do
quite as well as 1986 Classic did in this regard).

I'll try a utility to find and repair shortcuts (there's one in the
Win2K Admin toolkit I think) or try the one you mentioned. Then if that
works I'll try turning shortcut repair back on and reassess
performance.

Thanks!

john
jfaughnan@spamcop.net

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.perform_maintain (More info?)

OS2 had that capability also. If you created a shortcut on the desktop, and
then moved the file, the icon would refresh to the new location.

--
Regards,

Richard Urban
Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User

Quote from: George Ankner
"If you knew as much as you think you know,
You would realize that you don't know what you thought you knew!"

"John Faughnan" <jfaughnan@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:1121987205.512348.92620@g44g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
> Thanks! I ended up disabling repair of broken shortcuts:
>
> http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;299780&sd=tech
>
> This seems to have done the trick, my system performance is fine and
> the shortcuts now display properly. I think I might have overwhelmed
> XP's ability to do shorcut maintenance. NTFS really needs a true file
> identifier, and the ability to lookup a file location from the
> identifier. I guess we'll get in Longhorn the capabilities that MacOS
> Classic had in 1986 (thought OS X, with its unix roots, doesn't do
> quite as well as 1986 Classic did in this regard).
>
> I'll try a utility to find and repair shortcuts (there's one in the
> Win2K Admin toolkit I think) or try the one you mentioned. Then if that
> works I'll try turning shortcut repair back on and reassess
> performance.
>
> Thanks!
>
> john
> jfaughnan@spamcop.net
>