Initializing the root folders to display - Hanging Up
Thatch
file open dialog box (in the lookin Dropdown list), I get the message:
"Initializing the root folders to display"
However, that is all it does. It never comes back and the file system crashes.
Anybody know how to fix this nasty, abhorrent file system feature???
This message will appear also with any Office application that I try to use
the
drop down menu.
I've run the system restore a previous date with no use. What can I do to
resolve this issue? After this "feature" comes up, I can't get any access to
any drives on my system. I have to reboot the machine and start again.
Obviously, the file system manager is corrupt. How can I check for the
correct files for the file system manager so that it works ok.
Lappen
We have several customers who get this "Initializing the root folders to
display".
What they all have incommen:
.They have XP SP2
.They have upgraded from an older version of Office to Office 2007
The only thing I have found (not tested) is that it has something to do with
networkdrives that are offline. The only solution seam to be to disconnect
these offline drives.
linnev
than determining if a drive is available "on demand," i.e. when you actually
attempt to navigate to the drive. This is an old bug that has plagued the way
the OS and the MS programs work for a long time. If you search knowledge base
you see these issues back in 2002. What that means is that if it cannot
resolve a drive, it will continue to attempt to do so with all name services
available until they have all failed (timed out) for that drive.
Consequently, if you happen to have a drive that is disconnected, it will
take much longer for the "initialization." In WinXP and MSOfficeXP it was
supposedly "fixed" with SP1.
It is not acceptable at all, and I am moving all my mobile users to other
productivity suites since this is death to a laptop user that spends time
both in the office where mapped drives are essential to productivity and in
the field where speed and reliability are essential.
BTW, it is not just Office2007 that has this issue, I have several mobile
users that recently had this come back up on XP Pro / Office 03 and I suspect
that one or another of the updates to windows may have broken what was
allegedly fixed :(
I am not one of those tiresome IT folks that denegrates MS at every turn,
but this type of blunder has me nodding more often than not when the
anti-Microsoft crowd starts out on a rampage.
pravin
peteralt
crashes. I upgraded from 2003 to 2007. did you ever figure out how to
resolve?
jevbrowser
Frodo
If any that show their status as Disconnected double-click them to reconnect.
If they won't reconnect right click and select "Disconnect" to remove them
from the list.
Dave
uses mapped drives in the office and is now at one of their clients plugged
into their network. Once he disconnected the network patch cable, Word
returned to "normal" operation, apparently sensing no network.
JG
I had this problem with XP SP2
Office 2007 (clean install)
VISIO 2007 (clean install)
I thought it was due to a removable drive I was using but the post on
network drives was correct. I had 3 not available network drives, as soon as
I disconnected them it was fine.
I too am amazed this is still an issue (if it was before) I am fully patched
and Service Packed and its a pretty big bug not having the ability to use
visio with an offline network drive.
Flipdascrip
to get rid of which fixed the problem. Thank you.
Banana@discussions.microsoft.com Arne Banana
months old, and I never experienced it until today.
GabrielN
laptop after installing Office 2007. I'm a computer consultant very
experienced with MS software but I had never seen this problem before. You
sure saved me some time trying to solve this issue.
Thanks again.
KELPIE
Disconnecting the unavailable mapped drives solved the problems for me.
Thanks.
jg2jump
jg2jump
happens with Word, Outlook, Excel and any other part of the Office Suite. It
doesn't hang up forever but it takes a long time for it to time out and give
up trying to find the other mapped drives on my peer to peer network. But
disconnecting the other drives (mostly my two laptops that are not on all the
time) is not convenient. Rather, I have found that the hang up tends to occur
when you use the drop list of available drives. If you, instead, navigate to
the location you seek using the "up one level" button on your menu bar, it
doesn't hang up. It is frustrating that this is such a long term bug with
Office. This does not occur with any other program that is not MS.
ScriptGeek
of such a solution I developed two batch files that work well without to much
inconvenience.
Using a text editor such as Notepad, type in the following lines:
Net Use X: /Delete
Net Use Y: /Delete
Net Use Z: /Delete
Include each drive that you want to disconnect, and save the document as
Disconnect.bat on your desktop (or where ever it is convenient). When this
batch file is run the network drives will be disconnected and the
"Initializing the Root Folders to Display" problem will not appear while
working offline from your network.
To re-connect to your drives when on your network, create another batch file
named Connect.bat with the following lines:
Net Use X: \\ServerName\ShareName
Net Use Y: \\ServerName\ServerName
Net Use Z: \\ServerName\ServerName
Include the same drives that you used in Disconnect.bat and run this batch
file when you are connected to the network and your drive should be mapped.
I don't have to login to my server after running Connect.bat, but you may
have to login after running Connect.bat depending on your network
configuration.
bruce
bruce
of people worldwide with this problem who don't understand what a mapped
network drive is let alone understand how to unmap them. They just want the
problem to go away. This has got to be one of the most frustrating
"unpublished features" that I have come across in my 30 years of trying to
get my head around computers. (Some will say I've been lucky!). The vast
majority of people in the world with this problem do not want to fix it for
themselves, they just want it to go away and they want Microsoft to get of
their backsides and get a fix out there. Microsoft please WAKE UP! Is there
no one out there in Bill's world who is actually connecting with these forums?
Ed
they don't know whats going on in their system...the tech send me back to
some FAQ page which was no help.
bruce
also. Disconnecting or unmapping the network drives is a very short term fix
to make the problem go away today, but in today's mobile world where people
work at multiple sites and need to access multiple servers, this kind of
problem needs to be resolved so that unmapped network drives don't cause this
problem
Dave
that was not available at work. Disconnected the drive and voila, no more
message.
Thanks
Anand@discussions.microsoft.com Nitish Anand
Okay, and did upgrading help this problem solve???
As far as i know it happnes becus of 2 reasons:-
1. Shared Network Drives being corrupted (connect or disconnect?)
2. Upgrade to newer MS Office (2003/2007?)
Please detail.
regards
Nitish Anand
Jack
Thank you!!!
Jack
Jeff
whole mess of problems including this. Now, it does not freeze and I can
still keep all of my mapped drives, even if they are disconnected.
Bart
May be we all could learn and try
Bart
Allowishes
is Pissed@discussions.microsoft.com Jeff is Pissed
Then someone else should be fired for not being loud enough to be heard over
marketing, and then someone should be fired for not listening.
This is widespread crap--it happens at work, it happens at home, it happens
anywhere with a network.
Google here I come!!!!!
Ben
I had the same problem when someone was connecting via cisco VPN. He only
had a personal home drive mapped showing. However this wasn't working
correctly. Within AD our access control dept sets the home drive as
\\server\users\user name I changed this to a share \\server\username$ and
asked him to disconnect his VPN connection and reconnect close down all apps
and he was then able to save and open docs without the error reappearing.
Also still had the network drive mapped.
Hope this helps..
Vincexsx
she would try to attach a file to an email in Outlook 2007. I found that
there was a memory card assigned to the "Z" drive letter, but was
disconnected. I removed that drive and now it is working perfectly.
-Vince
"Lappen" wrote:
> Hi.
>
> We have several customers who get this "Initializing the root folders to
> display".
> What they all have incommen:
> .They have XP SP2
> .They have upgraded from an older version of Office to Office 2007
>
> The only thing I have found (not tested) is that it has something to do with
> networkdrives that are offline. The only solution seam to be to disconnect
> these offline drives.
>
justadad
Thanks. That's exactly my scenario...upgrade from 2003 to 2007, and I did
have a few network drives not available. Thanks.
Narnimar
Hello, Same problem I also get here when I wanted to save downloaded office
files. It takes long time but opens the location. Your this answer is
delighted me and I would like to know how can I avoid waiting till it opens?
Allen
disabling/disconnecting/deleting your mapped drives:
1. While in your MS Office 2007 program (I used Word), left click the
Office button in the upper right and choose "Open".
2. Here you'll see the Places Bar on the left ("Trusted Templates",
"Recent", "Desktop", "My Documents", "My Computer", "My Network Places" and
"Office Live"
3. Right Click "Office Live" and choose "Remove"
4. Left click "My Network Places", select all items that appear in the
window to the right, and choose "delete". This will maintain your "Entire
Network"; don't worry.
5. Close MS Word
6. Re-open and try to "Save as". Worked like a charm for me.
Allen Darrah, MCP
Nik
I still need help. I am not very good with computers but I am very good at
following instructions. How do I disconnect offline drives? In the meantime I
will search for an answer.
Lately I notice quite a few issues. First the computer started slowing down
so I freed up some space by deleting files but that didn't change much. Then
I ran several scans and nothing. The task bar lost the quick launch, show
desktop icon and the volume icon from the tray. I got back both using
instructions from this site. The internet was disabled as well as the virus
scanner. Internet connection was restored with help from my ISP. What is
happening here?
Thank You.
John Erickson
I've read all the posts on this and I just wanted to add a few more pieces
to this puzzle.
It was happening to me as well. Not only the "Initializing root folders"
display, but I was also seeing severe response issues when I selected a
folder from the dropdown after I got past the "Initializing root folders"
display. By sever I mean I'd go off and play around 10 games of freecell
while waiting for the folder selection to take and allow me to continue.
Eliminating the disconnected mapped drives solved the problem for me. The few
things I wanted to add were:
1. It's not just limited to people who have upgarded from Office 2003 ->
Office 2007. I was experiencing the problem on a newly setup computer that
had never had Office 2003 on it. The only Office it ever had installed on it
was Offive 2007.
2. It seems to happen on all the office components. Word, Outlook, and
Excell I know for sure. I'd see it in Outlook whenever I tried to save a
custom form that I designed.
3. In my case is was a disconnected virtual pc drive I had assigned a local
drive letter to and forgot about.
I understand the problem, but I just don't see why what you are attempting
to do can't be done in a seperate thread so that it doesn't compromise the UI
performance. Or I read another users comment about not accessing the drive
letter until it has been selected from the drop down. That would work as
well, but the seperate thread may be an easier fix that doesn't require as
many architecture changes.
John
of Bosnia@discussions.microsoft.com Omer of Bosnia
"ScriptGeek" wrote:
===============================================
The solution to this should be sought from within MS Office 2007, and it to
to something connecting USB/other drives...
There is an elegant solution at:
http://besthubris.com/computers-internet/rid-places-bar-microsoft-office/
Stop Initializing Places / Initializing My Places Dialog Box
If you are sick an tired of waiting for what used to be an instant load Save
box to appear, you can get rid of the Initializing My Places bar by deleting
the offending entry from your Save As box.
Chances are you have never bothered to customize your My Places box before.
Chances are you never even knew that it existed, because all you ever wanted
was a Save As box. Fortunately, it isn’t too hard.
1. Click on the Office Symbol or File Menu and choose Open.
2. Right-Click on the Live Desktop icon in the bar that runs down the
side of the dialog box (That’s the My Places Bar, by the way.) and choose
Delete.
3. If you don’t see it, expand the box to make it bigger. The default
size, of course, isn’t big enough for the extra entry, because no one ever
added one and it was designed to accommodate only the real world entries that
were there by default before the “upgrade.”
4. If you see another entry, that might be the culprit. Anything over a
network will slow things down.
Basically what is happening is every time I try and save a Word document, it
populates the “My Places Bar.” To do so, it apparently establishes a
connection. This takes a second or two over the Internet, especially if you
aren’t already connected, or it takes just as long to time out. Either way,
you are waiting to do something that used to be nearly instant.
To sum up, Microsoft decided that it would be smart computing to check an
Internet service I never use EVERY SINGLE TIME I save any document. Or, in
other words, my computer should be slower every single hour of every single
day that I use it, so it would be easier to use Live Desktop!
It is times like these, where Microsoft chooses its strategic agenda over
the needs and desires of users, that causes so many people to hate the
company so fiercely.
Good luck!
Omer of Bosnia
==============
Debra
Red17
Glorfindel324
network in order to attach anything to an Outlook message that isn't in the
'my documents' folder. Saved me lots of time, thanks folks. But what a bug
and why doesn't MS fix it?
ganesh
Rajasekhar
Even I was facing the issue "Initializing the root folders to display"
I disconnected all the offline drives and it started working.
Looks like the problem is with offline drive trying to connect to
disconnected network drives.
Thanks guys.
Sylvia
Sylvia
Sylvia
I upgraded to Office 2007 and did not have any problems until the last time
some auto updates started downloading when I tried to turn my computer off.
Since then,
the "initializing the root folders to display" message comes up. My
computer doesn't crash, but it takes forever to open anything in Excel. It
seems to me it might be a problem with last updates the Microsoft put out.
"Lappen" wrote:
> Hi.
>
> We have several customers who get this "Initializing the root folders to
> display".
> What they all have incommen:
> .They have XP SP2
> .They have upgraded from an older version of Office to Office 2007
>
> The only thing I have found (not tested) is that it has something to do with
> networkdrives that are offline. The only solution seam to be to disconnect
> these offline drives.
>
Ol-Timer
Deleting disconnected drives is the only solution? What about mobile users?
Our offices are spread all over the Continent, we have sales people who
travel across both the US and Canada and connect with bases in many
locations. Your telling me I have to set up batch files for them to run for
each location? Disconnecting old and connecting current location drives??
Fix this issue, this is not a fix and is not even feasible. 3 years and
STILL nothing new about this? Rediculous.
TechSavyGuy
network drive. Once I dismounted the drive everything worked GREAT! Thanks
for the help.
lopduoc...@gmail.com
> file open dialog box (in the lookin Dropdown list), I get the message:
>
> Anybody know how to fix this nasty, abhorrent file system feature???
> This message will appear also with any Office application that I try to use
> the
> drop down menu.
>
> I've run the system restore a previous date with no use. What can I do to
> resolve this issue? After this "feature" comes up, I can't get any access to
> any drives on my system. I have to reboot the machine and start again.
>
> Obviously, the file system manager is corrupt. How can I check for the
> correct files for the file system manager so that it works ok.
It is attempting to poll the network drive.
To "fix " this, you would have to disconnect a mapped drive.
Of course, then you would have to remap the drive again when connected to the network.