Long loading time issue when opening Windows My PC

When you open Windows This PC, the problem of long loading time can be caused by several reasons. However, if you have registered a network shared folder as a drive, and the registered network drive is currently inaccessible, this may be the cause of the problem of the drives taking a long time to appear on your PC.

Of course, you can disconnect and delete the inaccessible network drive through the right-click menu, but with long loading times, even this method may not be possible. So, although it is a bit complicated, I will introduce how to delete a network drive using a command in the Windows command prompt.

Open a Command Prompt window

Press the ‘Windows + R’ shortcut key to open the ‘Run’ window. Then type cmd to open the command prompt.

Run the Windows + R shortcut > Enter cmd > OK

View and delete network drives

Enter the net use command at the command prompt. By entering this, you can check the status of the registered network drive. In my case, the Z drive is displayed as ‘Disconnected’ and I suspect this is the cause of the long loading issue on my PC.

C:\Windows\System32>net use
New connections will be remembered.


Status       Local     Remote                    Network

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
OK                  R:   \\pcname.ad.company.com\Data   Microsoft Windows Network
Disconnected Z:   \\192.168.0.20\username                Microsoft Windows Network
The command completed successfully.

Once you have confirmed the drive letter you want to delete, you can delete the network drive with the command below.

• net use /delete <drive letter:>

C:\Windows\System32>net use /delete Z: 
Z: was deleted successfully.

In my case, after deleting the Z drive, the long loading issue on my PC no longer recurred.

Appendix

Below are details of the options available with the net use command mentioned above.

C:\Windows\System32>net use /h
The syntax of this command is:

NET USE
[devicename | *] [\\computername\sharename[\volume] [password | *]]
        [/USER:[domainname\]username]
        [/USER:[dotted domain name\]username]
        [/USER:[username@dotted domain name]
        [/SMARTCARD]
        [/SAVECRED]
        [/REQUIREINTEGRITY]
        [/REQUIREPRIVACY]
        [/WRITETHROUGH]
        [[/DELETE] | [/PERSISTENT:{YES | NO}]]

NET USE {devicename | *} [password | *] /HOME

NET USE [/PERSISTENT:{YES | NO}]

NET USE connects a computer to a shared resource or disconnects a
computer from a shared resource. When used without options, it lists
the computer's connections.

devicename       Assigns a name to connect to the resource or specifies
                 the device to be disconnected. There are two kinds of
                 devicenames: disk drives (D: through Z:) and printers
                 (LPT1: through LPT3:). Type an asterisk instead of a
                 specific devicename to assign the next available
                 devicename.
\\computername   Is the name of the computer controlling the shared
                 resource. If the computername contains blank characters,
                 enclose the double backslash (\\) and the computername
                 in quotation marks (" "). The computername may be from
                 1 to 15 characters long.
\sharename       Is the network name of the shared resource.
\volume          Specifies a NetWare volume on the server. You must have
                 Client Services for Netware (Windows Workstations)
                 or Gateway Service for Netware (Windows Server)
                 installed and running to connect to NetWare servers.
password         Is the password needed to access the shared resource.
*                Produces a prompt for the password. The password is
                 not displayed when you type it at the password prompt.
/USER            Specifies a different username with which the connection
                 is made.
domainname       Specifies another domain. If domain is omitted,
                 the current logged on domain is used.
username         Specifies the username with which to logon.
/SMARTCARD       Specifies that the connection is to use credentials on
                 a smart card.
/SAVECRED        Specifies that the username and password are to be saved.
                 This switch is ignored unless the command prompts for username
                 and password.
/HOME            Connects a user to their home directory.
/DELETE          Cancels a network connection and removes the connection
                 from the list of persistent connections.
/REQUIREINTEGRITY
                 Requires a signed connection to the share. The operation will fail
                 if the provider does not support signed connections.
/REQUIREPRIVACY  Requires an encrypted connection to the share. The operation will fail
                 if the provider does not support encrypted connections.

/PERSISTENT      Controls the use of persistent network connections.
                 The default is the setting used last.
YES              Saves connections as they are made, and restores
                 them at next logon.
NO               Does not save the connection being made or subsequent
                 connections; existing connections will be restored at
                 next logon. Use the /DELETE switch to remove
                 persistent connections.

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