Windows – Slow search in Windows 2012 R2 start menu

I've had success with Sysinternals Process Explorer. With this, you can search to find what process(es) have a file open, and you can use it to close the handle(s) if you want. Of course, it is safer to close the whole process. Exercise caution and judgement.

To find a specific file, use the menu option Find->Find Handle or DLL... Type in part of the path to the file. The list of processes will appear below.

If you prefer command line, Sysinternals suite includes command line tool Handle, that lists open handles.

Examples

• c:\Program Files\SysinternalsSuite>handle.exe |findstr /i "e:\" (finds all files opened from drive e:\"
• c:\Program Files\SysinternalsSuite>handle.exe |findstr /i "file-or-path-in-question"

Have you tried pressing Alt+Home?

As a general solution, you should consider changing your Remote Desktop settings to send Windows-key events to the remote server. From Microsoft:

1. If the Remote Desktop Connection dialog box is not already open, open it by typing mstsc on the Start screen, and then pressing Enter.

2. On the Remote Desktop Connection dialog box, click Show Options to display connection setting tabs.

3. In the Keyboard area of the Local Resources tab, select one of the following from the Apply Windows key combinations drop-down list.

   • To apply keyboard shortcuts to a full-screen Remote Desktop session, select Only when using the full screen.

   • To apply keyboard shortcuts to a Remote Desktop session that is contained within a window, select On the remote computer.

4. When you are finished configuring other settings for your Remote Desktop session, click Connect to connect to the session and start working, or click Save on the General tab to save your connection settings as an RDP file that you can use for future connections.