Disabling desktop icons from auto-refreshing

[OldSchoolGamer]

I have a lot of desktop icons. I made a shortcut for each of my emulators along with every other program I use. So my desktop icons fills up about half the space of my desktop. They are all organized. (NES emulators grouped together, web browsers grouped together, etc.) Every 10 minutes or so, my desktop icons automatically refresh. This causes whatever I'm currently doing to slow down for about 30 seconds while the icons are refreshing. I don't understand why Windows XP makes them refresh so often. I am positive that I do not have any malware on my computer, in case you thought that was the cause of it.

So I'd like to disable the auto-refresh of my desktop icons, how do I do that?

Are there any negative effects from disabling this option?

I googled this issue and a couple people said to visit http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_tweaks.htm and to download and execute the REG file from Line #157. But I didn't know what the drawbacks of executing such an action was. Any help please?

[lee4]

you probably got some type program process running in the background causing windows to refresh
(click on taskbar goto task manager to see what is running)

negative effects from disabling refresh is you have press F5 to see new icon or changes to desktop

[OldSchoolGamer]

you probably got some type program process running in the background causing windows to refresh
(click on taskbar goto task manager to see what is running)

negative effects from disabling refresh is you have press F5 to see new icon or changes to desktop

I don't think I have any type of program process that causes Windows to refresh more often than normally would. I don't have anything weird installed or anything like that. Every program I have installed is a well trusted, reputable program. Maybe I exaggerated the "every 10 minutes it refreshes." It could be every 20-45 minutes. I never timed it. It's just annoying that if I'm playing an emulator in windowed mode, and I click off the emulator and then back to the emulator, and then sometimes my desktop icons would start to refresh which would drastically slow down the FPS of my emulator for 15 seconds or so.

How do I disable the auto-refresh? I'm not sure if I trust this method/website I read:

I googled this issue and a couple people said to visit http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_tweaks.htm and to download and execute the REG file from Line #157.

Another question, what does the icons affect? Meaning does it affect my computer's memory (1 GB memory) or does it affect my computer's cache (1MB L2 Cache)? Like, hypothetically, if I were to increase my computer's cache, would that speed up the auto-refresh process so that the icons refresh quicker than the 15 seconds or so that it currently takes for them to refresh? I could have sworn remembering reading somewhere that a computers cache affects icons in some way. But I don't know.

Btw, thanks @ lee4 for always answering my computer tech questions.

[Pyriel]

If it takes 15 seconds to refresh your desktop icons, the problem is likely that you have too many well-trusted, reputable programs running for your hardware to keep up.

This is the contents of the .reg file you referenced.

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced]
"NoNetCrawling"=dword:00000001

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer]
"Max Cached Icons"="12000"

"NoNetCrawling" is a setting that will prevent Windows from occasionally searching for network resources like shared folder and network printers. "Max Cached Icons" is pretty self-explanatory. It sets the max size of your icon cache in memory to a ridiculously large value. I have no idea if this will actually prevent the refreshing you're seeing, but it will almost certainly lead to more memory being used to hold icons. Edit: It seems pretty innocuous, and the NoNetCrawling may improve performance somewhat. If you apply the file, I'd save the value of the "Max Cached Icons" key, and be ready to tweak it.

How do you propose to increase your L2 cache? It's a component of the CPU, so it's not something that's easily upgraded. There might have been a time when a common line of home PCs allowed you to augment a bank of cache chips on the main board, but we're well beyond that now. The L1, L2, and L3 caches are essentially small (though increasing in size respectively) banks of extremely fast-access memory built into the chip. They just hold the values of frequently accessed locations in memory. I suppose it's conceivable that the icons would end up in one of the CPU caches, but you couldn't guarantee it. I suspect you just read "icon cache" and confused the terms.

[OldSchoolGamer]

How do you propose to increase your L2 cache? It's a component of the CPU, so it's not something that's easily upgraded.

I wasn't. That's why I said "hypothetically". I just meant that if, hypothetically, my computer were to have more cache.

@ Pyriel, Thanks for analyzing that REG file. So it technically wasn't a "Disable Auto-Refresh" command. It would have just increased the max icon cache and disabled the searching for network folders, etc. And the side effects would hopefully stop the auto-refreshing. That's not something I want to do because I don't want to commit "more memory being used to hold icons." My computer has a small amount of memory as it is, so I wouldn't want to commit any additional memory to hold the icons.

I just want a straight up way to disable auto-refresh.

[Pyriel]

Out of curiosity, do you save files to your desktop? That can cause Windows to think it needs to redraw the desktop, especially if you had, say, a word-processor document open, and it keeps auto-saving to the draft file periodically.

[OldSchoolGamer]

Out of curiosity, do you save files to your desktop? That can cause Windows to think it needs to redraw the desktop, especially if you had, say, a word-processor document open, and it keeps auto-saving to the draft file periodically.

No. I never save any files to my desktop. My entire hard drive is neatly organized.

[ReyVGM]

There's no auto refresh.

The problem is that your computer is slow with little RAM, and after a while of using programs, your virtual memory (pagesys file) gets full and your computer gets slow. That "refresh" thing that you see is just your PC taking the time to flush something out of your RAM or pagesys to make room for whatever you are trying to "see" next. In this case, your bloated desktop.

I suggest you increase your virtual memory to the recommended amount and set windows to flush the virtual memory every time you turn off the computer.

I also recommend you download CCleaner, which allows you to disable what programs load with windows, which can also use up your RAM before you even open anything.

And finally, download Koshy John's DiskMax, which is an awesome tool to remove all of those useless files that you can't normally access yourself. Just with one use you'll see your PC going faster. Don't use that crappy windows one you've been using, that does nothing.

Both of those programs are safe, popular, don't stay active and use little resources.

[rimsky82]

My expert advice: buy a new computer.

You're welcome for the expert advice.

[ReyVGM]

I don't know what's keeping him, but for now, my suggestions will work.

[OldSchoolGamer]

I don't know what's keeping him, but for now, my suggestions will work.

I'm buying a new one when you buy a new one.

[ReyVGM]

I really doubt it's the same situation. I don't buy one because I can't, but trust me that I wish I could.

[OldSchoolGamer]

Why would I buy a new PC now when Windows 8 is slated for general availability on October 26, 2012. I'm going to at least wait until then. Maybe I'll ask Santa for a new computer for Christmas.

[Sly Hedgehog]

I don't buy one because I can't, but trust me that I wish I could.

same here but my computer is fine for now. i use it since 2009

[ReyVGM]

Windows 8? Good luck with that!