It seems that some new users of Vista are having issues with file transfers.  More specifically, moving and transferring large single files or a large group of files can take as much as three times longer than it did on Windows XP.  Microsoft has acknowledged the existence of the flaw but is not providing a fix to the general public.

If you have been experiencing these issues on Vista you must call Microsoft support and the update may cost you $59.  If Microsoft warrants the update as necessary they will waive the $59 surcharge.

Forums have been buzzing with these file transfer issues on Vista since it released in January but there was a large spike in activity yesterday.  One user was particularly unhappy, “I simply cannot believe that I updated to a new computer and put Windows Vista on it to find that it’s not even capable of moving and deleting files in an efficient manner. The most basic of features that I use all the time is a slow train wreck. Who do they have designing these programs — monkeys?”

According to the Microsoft Knowledgebase this flaw is only supposed to apply to network file operations but clearly it also applies to local file operations as well.  The hotfix should fix both.

What we have here is a “50% solution”, Microsoft has acknowledged the problem on Vista and has provided a fix for it but you must call to get it and in some cases will have to pay for it.  They may roll out this fix when Vista SP1 is released later this year but don’t hold your breath.

I have not experienced this problem for myself in full as I rarely move files that are more than 1GB in size or I move them in smaller groups.  However, I have noticed that deleting large groups of files, regardless of size is slightly slower which may or may not be addressed in the hotfix.

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Related:

Vista SP1 RC1 does not fix slow file transfer issues

Vista SP1 is slower than pre-SP1 Vista

Should you install Vista SP1 beta?

Will Vista SP1 beta ship this week?

Move to Vista driven by security

Entry was posted on Wednesday, March 28th, 2007 at 5:00 am under Vista.  Print This Post

Read more entries by Jonathan Schlaffer.