Delay in starting programs from shortcuts

[Lord Winter]

I'm having a weird problem. Every time I click on a shortcut there is a one or two minute delay from the time I clicked on it to the time it opens. I've notice that this only applies to programs in the program files folder. Chrome, which is in another directory, opens instantly. Also in the delay period the program shows up on the processes tab in task manager. Does any one know how I can fix this?

I am running Vista.

[Whacker]

Might be a number of things. First thought would be antivirus or antispyware doing automated scans. Second, you might have a LOT of processes running and/or memory hog programs running that are sucking up a lot of your free RAM, and/or causing a lot of pagefile thrashing. Not that neither of these are mutually exclusive as well.

[KukriKhan]

Vista has a Sidbar and 'Gadgets', that lots of folks disable to get more screen space. One of those Gadgets is a CPU & RAM meter combo.

If I had your 2-minute(!) delay problem, I'd enable those meters and see how/if they jump in usage, once I clicked on a shortcut. By the sound of it, since the delay apparently happens to most of your apps, I think Whacker's diagnosis is sound: antiV screening the apps, or Vista screening the apps, or a previously-used app hoarding CPU & RAM usage.

Two minutes is unacceptable. Ten to fifteen seconds I could live with, but I expect 2-3 seconds as "normal" for shortcut response.

After viewing the meters (just to get some indication of speed), I'd start turning off running apps - one at a time - and testing shortcut speed, until I found the "offender". That process could take 5 minutes, or 5 days, sadly.

[Whacker]

Something else I just thought of.

This also COULD be indicative of a very sick HDD getting ready to kick the bucket. Operative word is COULD. There is no guarantee, and in my personal experience this is a very spotty and inconsistent precursor, but I specifically remember having had this same behavior occur on 2 of my HDDs that failed in the past 10 or so years. Just be careful and keep an eye (and ear) out. If you hear your HDD making any kind of wierd or unusual noises, that's usually a sure thing. Make sure your data is backed up regularly.

Also, something else that may help, provided it's not a sick computer, is to try defragging your HDD using JKDefrag or the built-in Windoze defragger.

[Xiahou]

Probably just an outside chance, but it could also indicate malicious software activity. I had worked on a server before that had long delays after clicking any desktop icon. Lengthy investigation revealed that during the delay, it was actually attempting to launch a backgrounded IRC connection and doing who-knows-what else via that connection.

[Whacker]

That was entirely your fault for installing all those damn virii to begin with. Stop sending them to me all the time, I don't want them!