Giveaway of the Day Forums

1. 

   mikiem2
   Moderator

   I was delayed getting my tablet with Win11 updated this month, & when I tackled it today had problems [Thanks Microsoft] -- the update failed when the cumulative update tried to install the buggy UEFI patch that Microsoft has been trying to push out successfully for months now. Figured no problem, I'll download the update, where that UEFI patch will *hopefully* be absent, & install April's update that way. It worked, but the combined attempts left the C:\Windows\ SoftwareDistribution\ Download\ folder Really Jam Packed. When you delete a folder in File Explorer it for some reason counts all the files & then gives you an estimated time to completion. This Download folder had too many files for this poor tablet to handle with its meager 2GB RAM -- it crashed File Explorer. The solution was to use RoboCopy. There is no Delete option, so you have to trick it...

   You 1st need an empty folder, then in PowerShell the command is Robocopy [Path To Empty Folder] [Path To Folder To Delete] /Purge . In this case I used Robocopy C:\Temp C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution\Download /purge . RoboCopy then copies the contents of the empty folder [which is none], then deletes any files in the destination folder that don't match that empty folder [all of the files]. It can take a while, but you're not waiting for File Explorer to do its count, & when it's done just delete the remaining folder.

   Posted 1 year ago #
2. 

   DataDragon
   Member

   Hi, couldnt you use something like unlocker or lockhunter, free programs to just delete the directory? Allows to unlock, delete, copy or rename a locked file but I use it sometimes when something is locking a file/folder and cant delete it through normal means. http://www.emptyloop.com/unlocker/ https://lockhunter.com/

   Alternatively, what about something like xyplorer which is compatible with windows 11 although not sure the limitations of the tablets generally with the low ram using such alternative programs since I use a laptop. Its still my favorite of the file explorer type replacements which I switch into a dual pane. Not free, but has been given away and otherwise can buy a 1 yr update license that then lasts forever once the year is up without further updates if you dont want to shell for a lifetime. Of course there are many others, its just the one I happen to use the most. https://www.xyplorer.com/index.php

   Posted 1 year ago #
3. 

   DataDragon
   Member

   Might also be a File Explorer memory leak issue on Windows 11. After the upgrade to Windows 11, a small number of users have been reporting a memory leak problem with File Explorer. Basically, after opening and closing File Explorer, the process fails to return the borrowed space in memory, causing the system to run out of memory, in some cases.

   Microsoft hasn't acknowledged the memory leak as a problem with the new version of the OS. However, if you are noticing system resources issues, there are a few things you can do, including restarting the explorer.exe process, restarting the computer, and if the problem continues, you can still potentially roll back to the previous version in some cases.

   Restart File Explorer process

   To restart the File Explorer process to mitigate the memory leak, use these steps:

   Right-click the Start button and select the Task Manager option.
   Click the More details button (if applicable).
   Click the Processes tab.
   Select the Windows Explorer process.
   Click the Restart button bottom right.

   Once you complete the steps, File Explorer will restart, temporarily mitigating the problem.

   Restart computer

   To restart your computer, use these steps:

   Click the Start button.
   Click the Power button and select the Restart option.
   After you complete the steps, the system resources should come back to normal.

   If you are experiencing the problem again, repeat either of the two methods. Maybe need to delete half the contents instead at a time for such a large amount of files, then try these.

   Posted 1 year ago #
4. 

   mikiem2
   Moderator

   Thanks -- it's just the way Windows & File Explorer work, though you'll probably not notice unless you're using a slow device &/or dealing with a huge amount of files or extremely large files... When you copy, move, or delete files &/or folders using File Explorer there are extra steps going on, e.g., File Explorer pops up a Window that can show you how many, the size, an estimate of how long, and a graph showing you how fast whatever's happening. And there's also added stuff going on that you don't see, though I couldn't find any sort of detailed list or explanation of just what happens under the hood [I even asked Bing Chat]. The bottom line is that if you're working with a large number of files & folders [it was over 65k when File Explorer crashed on my tablet], &/or large files, File Explorer can be terribly slow. Windows RoboCopy skips some of that overhead, & adds a bunch of features, switches you can use to do stuff like resume a halted [failed] file copy. Using the command line or PowerShell skips some of those steps too, but in this case, with that Download folder, PowerShell didn't work. The new Direct Storage for gaming, like Direct X itself provides more direct access to hardware, 3rd party apps like FastCopy & TerraCopy are faster than File Explorer for copying, and in mixed environments, companies like Oracle recommend using Linux for file handling because it's faster. As I'm typing this I'm copying backup archives to my mirrored storage pool over USB -- a quick comparison, using File Explorer the data transfer speeds are a bit erratic, with ~50MB/s difference between highs & lows, while RoboCopy & FastCopy both are giving me about 10MB/s difference between highs & lows, with their rough average data rate close to File Explorer's max. FWIW I give FastCopy the win personally since I'd rather point & click than type, but that's me.

   Where I found out about the technique using RoboCopy: tylermade[.]net/2017/10/06/how-to-delete-all-files-in-a-directory-with-robocopy/

   And in case it's useful...

   petri[.]com/robocopy-complete-guide/

   fastcopy[.]jp/

   Posted 1 year ago #
5. 

   DataDragon
   Member

   Yes its good that you found something that works already for you for the copying and other uses. I was pointing separately more to the possibility it was related to the known File Explorer memory leak issue on Windows 11 and perhaps to see by copying only a portion of the files and resetting the file explorer process or rebooting but you have bypassed file explorer altogether as you mentioned. And I was just curious if the separate delete issue would be solved with one of those free delete programs also bypassing file explorer but not requiring involving copying just to delete. They also might be useful to you otherwise for when other processes prevent some of those functions like deleting. I briefly saw you were messing with other process software so that may be in line with the type of things you experiment with.

   Posted 1 year ago #
6. 

   mikiem2
   Moderator

   I hadn't thought of using LockHunter -- I have a copy of the portable version on all of our devices. I've also downloaded the portable version of XYplorer. Next Update Tuesday I've give them a try. I don't expect the same sort of problems I had with the one tablet, but I always delete that download folder, and it always takes a while on 4 of our devices that are really low powered [Intel Atom SOCs.].

   Posted 1 year ago #
7. 

   DataDragon
   Member

   Good luck, and keep in mind unlocker also since its completely free and has some good features when compared to other programs on the program page. http://www.emptyloop.com/unlocker/ That one should work most of the time, with lockhunter as a backup/needing more info on processes that are locking. Since that time there are even more that I havent tried such as https://www.iobit.com/en/iobit-unlocker.php but you really only need 1 or 2 that work.

   Posted 1 year ago #

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