Hi guys, I know this is a really old topic, but I just thought I'd let you know what the problem is.

It's likely that the original topic creator's problem was not with any registry or Windows prefetch settings. (that is, if his problem was with all files&folders, not just folders with AVI's in them).

I bet 10-to-1 that he installed a hard drive controller card (RAID controller) and he didn't install the drivers. Yes, Windows will recognize it, and yes, it will work, but the reason the processor stays at 99-100% is because the RAID card's drivers are not installed and Windows has to control the hard drives directly.

Symptoms are that Explorer.exe or whatever file copying programs or cmd scripts you are using, like Xcopy, XXcopy, Robocopy, etc use all the available CPU power and the file copy progress is much slower than it should be. You can leave it on for long periods of time and it will eventually slow down so much that you can't even move the mouse or type on the keyboard.

I know this because I've worked with many a RAID controller in my day. It's possible it could have been something else, but I think that's probably his problem.

The solution is to find the CD that came with your controller card or go to the manufacturer's website and DL the drivers. Install it in Windows, then reboot. Problem solved. Cheers

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Another similar problem is when you try to right-click on a folder with many many files (thousands) and it takes forever to bring up the popup menu. It's likely that the folder has a bunch of music or video files and Windows Media Player has assigned context menu entries (shell extensions) to them. Use ShellExView (google it) to take off these unnecessary extensions, such as:
-- Add to Sync List
-- Add to Burn List
-- Add to Now Playing List
-- Add to Playlist
-- Play with Windows Media Player