Re: Windows Server 2003 Painfully slow when browsing folders via a network shortcut

It appears lowering the MenuShowDelay value in HKCU\Control
Panel\Desktop will fix this issue.


Jeroen Ritmeijer wrote:
> Here we go, I finally managed to consistently reproduce the problem.
>
> Users in our company are reporting that it is very slow to browse
network folders (not just browsing the systems in the domain tree).
Especially when browsing deep folder structures (5 levels deep) it
sometimes takes 10 seconds or more to refresh the file explorer view or
open a new directory.
>
> After I checked the security log on our Domain controller, I noticed
it was flooded with Audit events, described in detail later, sometime
hundreds per second. I disabled auditing just to see if things would
speed up, but clearly writing to the event log in Win2K3 is very
efficient as it made no difference.
>
> I then decided to do some experiments. The performance problem and
audit logging only seems to occur when the network folders are browsed
via a shortcut in 'My Network Places'. When the folders are browsed via
a mapped drive or via 'My network places \ Entire Network \ Microsoft
Windows Network \ Domain Name \ Server Name \ etc' performance is fine
and there are only a minimal amount of audit events logged in the
security log.
>
> The problem can easily and consistently be reproduced by navigating
to a network share and dragging it (not a subfolder) to 'Entire
Network' to make a shortcut. Then close the file explorer, re-open it
and browse to the new shortcut and navigate around a bit.
>
> Now make a drive mapping to the same share and browse around again.
You will notice that it is much, much faster.
>
> But wait, it gets better. If you drag a subfolder of the share to
'Entire Network' and then browse that folder then everything works fine
as well......... Confused...... I know I am.
>
>
> System setup
> Our system setup is very simple.
> a.. Server: 2.4Ghz, 512MB
> b.. OS: Windows Server 2003
> c.. Number of users: Problem even happens when only one user is
active
> d.. Network: standard 100Mbit network. Our company is small so
there are no subnets or VPN's
> e.. Clients: Windows XP Service pack 1, fully patched with the
latest MS patches
> The file server is also the Domain controller, but I have been able
to reproduce the same problem on a member server that is not a DC.
>
>
> Event log messages
> The security log of the server is flooded with the following
messages:
>
> Category: Privilege use, Type: Success Audit, EventID: 576, User:
System
>
> Special privileges assigned to new logon:
> User Name: SVRADMIN01$
> Domain: MCRL
> Logon ID: (0x0,0x3A5A3A)
> Privileges: SeBackupPrivilege
> SeRestorePrivilege
> SeDebugPrivilege
> SeChangeNotifyPrivilege
>
>
> Category: Logon/Logoff, Type: Success Audit, EventID: 538, User:
System
>
> User Logoff:
> User Name: SVRADMIN01$
> Domain: MCRL
> Logon ID: (0x0,0x3A59D3)
> Logon Type: 3
>
>
> Category: Logon/Logoff, Type: Success Audit, EventID: 540, User:
System
>
> Successful Network Logon:
> User Name: SVRADMIN01$
> Domain: MCRL
> Logon ID: (0x0,0x3A59D3)
> Logon Type: 3
> Logon Process: Kerberos
> Authentication Package: Kerberos
> Workstation Name:
> Logon GUID: {90d05e54-f2ea-efef-41cd-83e77024a21e}
> Caller User Name: -
> Caller Domain: -
> Caller Logon ID: -
> Caller Process ID: -
> Transited Services: -
> Source Network Address: 192.168.0.200
> Source Port: 1599
>
> etc, etc, etc.
>
>
> I have noticed that I am not alone, some people have reported the
same problem:
>
>
http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=e...804b39a&rnum=1
>
> and
>
>
http://groups.google.com/groups?q=%2...phx.gbl&rnum=1
>
>
> So, does anyone have a clue about how to fix it and stop my
frustrated users smashing their screens in?
>
> Thanks,
>
> Jeroen