extremely slow Open File dialog from all applications

Question

Hi,

We have network shares where users save office documents (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, PDF) some of the folders contain URL files with links to files in our west cost data center (we are on the east coast)

It looks like when users try to Open a file from any application the Open dialog takes forever to populate a list of application files. This only happens in the folders where we have URL files. If we take URL files out the problem goes away. While removing the URL files from the folders resolves a technical issue it creates a problem for the users because they don't know where to find URL files.

Looking at the older posts this seems to be by design, but is there a way to tell windows NOT to fetch data listed inside URL files?

https://aaoverflow.com/question/314911/how-to-prevent-openfiledialog-from-confusing-exe-with-url

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/archive/msdn-magazine/2003/march/cutting-edge-customize-your-open-file-dialog

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/1892595/openfiledialog-always-shows-url-internet-shortcut-files

Here is an example of one of the URL files:

[InternetShortcut]

URL=file://server-01/share/home/msmith/Procédure Signature.doc

[InternetShortcut.A]

URL=file://server-01/share/home/msmith/Procédure Signature.doc

[InternetShortcut.W]

URL=file://server-01/share/home/msmith/Proc+AOk-dure Signature.doc

Any help is greatly appreciated!

Thank you

Answer 1

Hi nettech,

Thanks for your post. Generally speaking, this is happening because somewhere in the .doc document, there is content that points to npkg.com. Office will do a DNS lookup for this domain name and once it got the ip address for this domain it can connect to the server to download the content that is associated, such as an image, etc.

If you would like to test a slow link to see if it is Chrome and the web site or Word, you can do the following method:

1. Highlight the slow hyperlink, right click, and select Edit Hyperlink.
2. The Edit Hyperlink window will open with the address to the link highlighted at the bottom of the window in the box labeled Address. Copy this Address.
3. Open Chrome and paste the address into the address bar and press the Enter key.
4. See how long it takes Chrome to open that web site without Word involved.

Please try the following methods and see if it takes effects.

1.  Open Word, go to Word Options (press/release these keys in this order: Alt, F, T). Refer to the image below. Select the Advanced Tab. Scroll down to the Save section and click to turn on Copy remotely store files onto your computer, and update the remote file when saving. Click OK to save your changes. Close all documents and Word to see if this change fixes the problem when Word opens again.
2.  Close all documents and Word. Press WinKey + R to open a run box. Enter winword.exe /safe (note the space before the /) and press the Enter key. This opens Word in safe mode. Use the Open document function in this Safe mode Word to open that document and test the hyperlink (Word will revert to the Ctrl + Click to activate the link). Any difference?
3. Deactivate all security software just long enough to test a hyperlink.
4. Shutdown Windows and restart in safe mode.

Hopefully one of these actions fixes or gives insight as to what is causing this.

Best Regards,

Ian Xue

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