I mean the thing uses up a lot of juice,
to arrange a folder with a 1000+ images by name or date takes quite a while, i've never had a problem like that when i was viewing the same folder on my computer with windows 2000 running on an anthlon 1500+, the computer i have now runs an a duel core processor so the conclusion I've come up with is that vista is using too many resources else where in system processes or that its incredibly inefficient with handling
image files, so does anyone have any remedies for either problem?

the answer is by JoelKatz :
You don't give us a lot of information. How much memory do you have? 32-bit or 64-bit Vista? What CPU? What kind of drive?

You may have a program installed that replaces Vista's native image handling. I believe Nero does this, and there might be a few other such programs. Make sure you have the latest version of any image handling programs like that. Some of them needed tweaking for SP1.

What video card?

Is this a folder you are accessing over a network? There are specific known issues with the way Vista generates thumbnails and there are workarounds.

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