DFS Shares Are Populated Slowly in Windows Explorer

Folders from a Distributed File System (DFS) share that are hosted on a Microsoft Windows Server 2003-based server appear slowly in Windows Explorer.

The shell in Microsoft Windows 2000 tries to gather information about each folder to determine if a folder is a mount point that is being returned from a server. Windows 2000 does not recognize whether the folder is local or is remote, and tries to gather this data for DFS links even if they are remote. This causes delays to occur in Windows Explorer but not at a command prompt.

Hotfix Information

A supported hotfix is available from Microsoft. However, this hotfix is intended to correct only the problem that is described in this article. Apply this hotfix only to systems that are experiencing this specific problem.

If the hotfix is available for download, there is a "Hotfix download available" section at the top of this Knowledge Base article. If this section does not appear, submit a request to Microsoft Customer Service and Support to obtain the hotfix.

Note If additional issues occur or if any troubleshooting is required, you might have to create a separate service request. The usual support costs will apply to additional support questions and issues that do not qualify for this specific hotfix. For a complete list of Microsoft Customer Service and Support telephone numbers or to create a separate service request, visit the following Microsoft Web site: Note The "Hotfix download available" form displays the languages for which the hotfix is available. If you do not see your language, it is because a hotfix is not available for that language.

Prerequisites

You must be running Windows 2000 Service Pack 3 (SP3).

Restart Requirement

You must restart your computer after you apply this hotfix.

File Information

The English version of this hotfix has the file attributes (or later) that are listed in the following table. The dates and times for these files are listed in coordinated universal time (UTC). When you view the file information, it is converted to local time. To find the difference between UTC and local time, use the Time Zone tab in the Date and Time tool in Control Panel.

Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem in the Microsoft products that are listed in the "Applies to" section of this article.

For additional information about how hotfix packages are named, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: