I have already done that multiple times with no change in behavior.

I can't get it to act up in the Windows Sandbox.

I had my IT rep help me with this Cleanboot process. We currently have all services and programs other than Windows services disabled, including anti-virus, monitoring, etc. I am still having the same Windows Explorer high activity when I do any kind of file work, so it seems we have not gotten to the root of the problem yet. Do you have any more ideas for us to try?

I am using a domain profile. My IT person created a new administrator domain profile for me, but the problematic behavior continues. What should I try next?

What Anvi-virus software are you using?  Could it be Webroot \ Endpoint?

If so, its unlikely anyone will allow you to disable it but if so, please try it. 

Also, have you ever had Fences 5 installed prior and it was fine, but something changed, and now it does not?  

Did you run Fences 4 prior and it was fine?

Are you using a 'Roaming' profile on your network?

Sean Drohan
Stardock Product Lifecycle Manager

Then logic dictates that something in your environment (app, setting, corp policy) is causing an issue. If it was known what it was, we may be able to work around it but until it is, we are at a loss ourselves. 

This is a complete shot in the dark but disable the Fences hotkey Windows Task Scheduler job, reboot, and see if you can reproduce it.

Sean Drohan
Stardock Product Lifecycle Manager

Excessive! It does and it doesn't. So, we probably shouldn't be needing to do that ForceFoundSlideshowResult lookup as much and can cache the result. However, these are just simple Windows registry (database) lookups which are highly cached and your system performs tens of thousands of these per second, so, the 20-50 shown here wouldn't make much a dent in anything. But I love where your head is at!

Have added code to a subsequent release to increasing caching on that lookup, but, I don't imagine that would have any impact unfortunately.

One step might be to uncheck "Enable Fences" from the bottom of the welcome screen and see if it reproduces, and then restart explorer (with Enable Fences unchecked already) and see if it reproduces. If unchecked when explorer starts loading, it don't load up at all. But might give other hints.

Disabling the Hotkey support is also another decent shot in the dark, but, unlikely to resolve. My best guess would be it has something to do with SHChangeNotifyRegister, but it does not get in the way of file copies etc it's just a notification, so at this time not seeing where it could be involved. This might be something we could test.

Another thing I would like to know is if you reset Fences to a default layout:

Does it reproduce?

Second, and while still in this default layout, create a 'Temp' folder on the desktop. If you take all the non-Windows icons \ documents (so no Recycle bin and such) on your desktop and 'move' them to this temp folder, does it reproduce?

If it does not reproduce, 'move' that 'temp' folder to \Documents in Windows explorer.  Going back to the desktop, create a Fences 'folder portal' to it:

Does it reproduce?

If not, we are in better shape...  You can likely see where I am going here, something on the desktop might be making Fences go nuts.

If you want to proceed like this (all my Fences on one of my PCs are Folder Portals only), go to the 'temp' folder and rename it 'DesktopFences'.  In it, create new folders that would be the same as any Fence name you had, 'Programs', 'Games', etc.  Start moving icons and documents from the root 'DesktopFences' folder to the new folders you created - Program ones in 'Programs', etc. 

Then go back to the desktop and create new individual Folder Portals for them. 

Let us know.

Sean Drohan
Stardock Product Lifecycle Manager

Ugh, ok. Ugh = not easily tested here. 

There are substantial differences, too many to name, so it can be daunting to find that needle in the haystack.

When you were creating Folder portals to the unique folder in the temp root, was there one specifically that you could see caused a performance hit?  If you have already created folder portals to each unique folder, is there one that you remove that has it dramatically improve?

Again, you can likely see where I am going here; trying to find an icon or doc that is causing an issue.

Another option to try is seeing if you can create folder portals to the absolute network location, bypassing folder redirection altogether.  That is something your IT people might frown upon (if even possible, I am a bit out of my depth there). 

In the end, folder redirection, while something we need to account for (if it is an issue), its not something we can readily test here.

Sean Drohan
Stardock Product Lifecycle Manager