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I have network share that contains several folders. One of those folders contains somewhere around 70,000 files, most of which are fairly small (less than 10kb) files, though some are significantly larger. The issue is that opening (via notepad or our own software) any one of the files in the folder, regardless of size, takes a good 30 seconds to a minute. Copying those same files happens at a normal speed. I tried moving a file to the root of the share, and the file opened instantly, which seems to rule out a networking issue. I also created a sub-directory inside the slow-to-load folder, and placed the file there. Again, the file opened promptly, so it should not be a permissions issue. I am assuming that there must be some process happening that is scanning all of the files in a folder each time a single file is loaded, but I am not sure what that process would be, or what I should look for.

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    I can understand looking for a solution to this. But have you considered that your environment, in general and for whatever reasons, is not capable of efficiently handling 70,000 files in a single folder? This is a really large amount. An amount that would suggest the underlying design of the system is at fault. Except for specific purposes, having 70k files in one folder is inefficient and difficult to work with in most cases. You can’t efficiently enumerate this many files, sort them, search them, thumbnail them, etc... Jan 25, 2019 at 3:54
  • The folder is primarily used by our software; not directly accessed by users. We have multiple clients with similar setups and equally large directories (some even larger) that are not running into this issue. Windows NTFS should be able to handle the number of files according to everything I've read. I'm not intimately familiar with our software, but I believe it uses the specific folder for storing and accessing these files.
    – BenHall
    Jan 25, 2019 at 15:39
  • Is there an anti-virus product installed on the client or server? Do the files have an issue opening if you try it directly in the server? Jan 25, 2019 at 15:45
  • There is an antivirus installed on the workstations, and that was one of my suggestions to the client to investigate, but I haven't had a chance to follow up with them yet. It also seems strange that the antivirus would scan every file every time one is opened. Server does not seem to have a problem, and according to the client, the few workstations still running Windows 7 don't have the issue either. Mostly I want to have some ideas of what else to check when I follow up with the client.
    – BenHall
    Jan 25, 2019 at 16:10
  • Sounds like am overly attached AV or an application - adobe reader for example would read nearly all PDFs in a directory (to generate a thiumbnail) before opening one. However, you should be able to see the traffic this generates.
    – bjoster
    Jan 25, 2019 at 16:50

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I believe I have found my answer here:

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/previous-versions/windows/it-pro/windows-7/ff686200(v=ws.10)

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  • I am not sure why I got such a negative response to this. It has been the solution that I have implemented on a couple of clients' systems. Is there something I can clarify to improve my answer?
    – BenHall
    May 16, 2019 at 15:50
  • You provided a link only answer. The link might not be available in the future. Thus, your answer might become useless to others. You should include all relevant information directly in your answer. Oct 1, 2021 at 7:02
  • Not only the link might disappear, but at least its current content doesn't make it obvious how it applies to the OP's problem. Is the metadata cache part of the problem or part of the solution? Which part of the cache is relevant here? ...
    – Stefan
    Jun 3, 2022 at 17:57

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