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I am forced to use a Windows machine for some parts of my job, but I am not a Windows guy, so there may be some obvious solution to this that I am missing.

Sometimes, when I am browsing files in Explorer, I accidentally click on the wrong folder which happens to lead to a network drive. Explorer dutifully tries to open said folder. Even if I am connected to the Internet this can take a few seconds, and when I'm not connected to the Internet (working remotely) it sometimes takes upwards of 30 seconds.

I'd like a way to be able to stop Explorer from opening that folder after I've clicked on it, so I don't have to wait 30 seconds for it to get the contents of the folder just to go back a folder when I know I've clicked on the wrong thing. Basically a sort of equivalent for Ctrl-C in a *nix environment during a long-running operation.

My current workaround is to open a new Explorer window when I do this because that tends to be faster. The obvious response is "don't click on the wrong folder," but clearly I am going to make mistakes once in a while, and it's annoying to lose those 30 seconds when I'm trying to get work done.

ahruss
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1 Answers1

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You can't - that instance of Explorer is waiting for the network subsystem to respond.

The ~30 seconds is the networking subsystem's time-out that happens so you're not waiting forever when the network location doesn't answer. :)

Starting a new instance of Explorer is probably the fastest/easiest work-around.

Perhaps check out this related SU question about the same problem: How to set the Windows network timeout for physically disconnected mapped drive?

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Ƭᴇcʜιᴇ007
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