Slow Network Browsing in My Network Places

There’s a serious problem in XP network browsing that makes My Network Places take an unbearably long time to open. Several solutions have been posted on web sites and in news groups. Some of them seem to work for some people some of the time, but I’ve haven’t seen one that solves the problem for everyone all of the time.

Until Microsoft supplies a fix for this problem, here are some ways to work around it, by browsing the network using tools other than My Network Places.

Solution 1: Use Windows Explorer.

Click Start | All Programs | Accessories | Windows Explorer. My Network Places appears in the left pane. Double click it to browse the network. The results appear in the right pane.

Solution 2: Use the hidden NetHood Folder.

Windows XP keeps a copy of the contents of My Network Places in a hidden folder called NetHood. Create a shortcut to NetHood on the Windows desktop:

1. Right click the desktop and click New followed by Shortcut. Type the path to the NetHood folder in the location box. The path has the form:

d:user name\NetHood

where d is the disk on which Windows XP is installed, and user name is the name that you use to log on. Substitute the appropriate values for your computer. For example, the path on my Windows XP computer is:

/p>

2. Click Next and then click Finish to create the shortcut.

3. Double click NetHood and access the shared network resources from there. Here, I’m about to open the shared C disk on my Windows XP Professional computer.

Solution 3: Create your own version of My Network Places, containing your own shortcuts to network resources.

Double click My Network Places. Read a good book or two while you wait for it to open. When it finally opens, click View workgroup computers, then drag and drop each of the other computers to a spot on the Windows desktop. XP will create a shortcut to each of them. Here’s what it looks like on my Windows XP Home Edition computer when I create shortcuts to two other computers:

If desired, press Backspace to see the workgroup name, then drag and drop it to the desktop to create a workgroup shortcut:

Here’s a more elaborate example. I’ve created a folder named Steve’s Network Places, containing shortcuts to:

• The shared C disks on the other two computers.
• A shared folder on one of them.
• The workgroup.
• The other two computers.

Solution 4: Connect directly to a computer or a shared disk or folder.

Click Start | Run, type one of these commands in the box, and click OK:

\\computer

\\computer\share

The first one opens a networked computer and shows its shared resources. The second one opens a shared disk or folder on a networked computer. For example, if a computer named XPPro has a shared folder named Download, the commands would be:

\\XPPro

\\XPPro\Download

Solution 5: Map a Network Drive

To access a particular shared drive or folder on another computer, map it as a network drive:

1. In My Computer, click Tools | Map Network Drive.
2. Change the drive letter if desired.
3. Specify the shared drive or folder in one of these ways:

   a) Enter the path in the Folder box, in the form \\computer\share

   b) Click Browse and browse to the shared disk or folder

4. Click Finish.

You can now access the shared drive or folder using its mapped drive letter, in the same way that you access local disk drives. If you click Reconnect at logon, the mapping will happen automatically every time Windows starts.