Windows Explorer – Why Does the Downloads Folder Take Long to Load?

windows 8windows-explorer

When I open my downloads folder, no files appear, just a message saying "This folder is empty". I see the address bar progress slowly creeping along, and after about thirty seconds the files and folders appear. This problem only occurs in the downloads folder. If I search for a file in the downloads folder, it comes up, and if I right click on it and select "Open File Location", everything shows up instantly. I am using Windows 8, but I think I had a similar problem once in Windows 7. Sadly I can't remember how I fixed it.

Best Answer

By default, the Downloads folder tries to index files as Pictures, which is taking a long time.

From here:

  1. Right click your Downloads folder
  2. Go to Customize
  3. Select Document or General items from the drop down
  4. If Document was already selected, choose Also apply this template to all subfolders
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