Problem with Screenshots Folder

Every time I open my GWs screenshots folder to look at a picture, my computer freezes up. I have to control/alt/delete to end the folder and the computer takes forever to work that out, if it works it out at all. Sometimes I need to reboot.

My GWs game does not have to be running for this to happen. In fact, I have tried closing all programs just to look in my screenshot folder, but the computer still freezes.

Does anyone know why this is happening or what I can do about it?

Thank you for any input.

I use Windows XP home edition if that helps at all.

have you tried to deleted the thumbnail file? let it recreate it self?

How many screenshots are in the Guild Wars folder? Even though I'm on Windows 7 now, when I open a folder with a TON of screenshots it takes a moment for it to load it all. Windows 7 has a sort of loading bar you can watch too and it moves slowly.

It all depends on your HDD access time, how many shots, their actual dimensions and file sizes and format. Are you using BMP as well? BMP is lossless (not what JPG is) and thus dramatically increases disk space used to represent the full quality image.

I had 5000 1920x1080 screenshots in full BMP from a game for a while and it was dreadful to even open the folder and wait 3 minutes for it to re index and load everything.

try moving the pictures to sub folders based of character for instance

As already mentioned - are you sure it's freezing up, or is it just taking a long time to read the directory?
If it's actually freezing up, I would suggest you right-click on the hard drive in "Computer" and select properties. Under that find and select "Check the drive for errors".

I'd like to try this, but I can’t see the thumbnail file even though I selected to not hide files and folders.

Sometimes I have hardly any in there and sometimes I have lots and they are all JPG files. The amount of pics in the folder seems irrelevant.

I do this all the time. I go into the folder to attempt to move the pics, but before I can select a few, it freezes. Sometimes it doesn't freeze immediately so I am able to move some, or all, of the pics. Sometimes I can move a lot if I select them and then quickly close the folder. They move to another file folder if the screenshot folder is closed in time. The only other clue I can provide is that if I have been playing GWs for a while, it freezes much quicker compared to if I had my computer off for a long time and then turn it on and go into the folder.

It's not simply taking a long time (well, occasionally it does, but I can still move my mouse). However, when my mouse freezes and the whold screen freezes, and I can't do anything, I go to the task manager. At least it opens. It always says that the folder is not responding. I "end program" and the dumpram, or what ever it’s called, takes forever to empty the memory.

Anyway, it's odd, but thanks for all of the ideas so far.

Have you tried using the command prompt to access the files? As people have said, it seems like your computer is just having a hard time loading them all as thumbnails etc. If you navigate there using command prompt then you can try all these suggestions through that. If you aren't sure about using the command prompt then you can google or just ask here.

Ok, thanks, I will try that.