OpenAs_RunDLL in Vista

Question

This isn't strictly a programming question, but hopefully someone here has the knowledge to help me.

Running Vista x64, the "Open File With" dialog takes forever to appear when trying to open a file with unknown type.

To be specific, the prompt giving the choice between "Use the web service to find the correct program" and "Select a program from a list of installed programs" appears immediately, but there is about a 10 second delay between pressing OK here and the next window (with a list of installed programs) appearing.

The same delay is present when I run "rundll32 shell32.dll,OpenAs_RunDLL" from a command line.

I'm guessing that this is not common behaviour, because I find it incredibly annoying, and I couldn't find any mention of it anywhere.

So..does anyone have any ideas what it might be? Or what I could do to try and find out?

Answer 1

You could check if you do not have have network connection declared (net use), or more generally any network paths which may be used by your list of program listed to "Open File With".

If a network path is unavailable, a 'timeout' delay can affect the GUI responsiveness, especially if that GUI must explore/list those paths.

Answer 2

VonC could be correct.

Read this article:

http://blogs.technet.com/markrussinovich/archive/2005/08/28/the-case-of-the-intermittent-and-annoying-explorer-hangs.aspx

You should use process explorer to watch the stack when you initiate the action. You should be able to tell what sort of operation is timing out.

Download process explorer here:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896653.aspx