In Vista, Windows Explorer creates thumbnails for your files to make them easier to recognize. If you have a fast enough computer, this is a great feature. But if your computer is slower, this can really bring Explorer to a crawl as creating these thumbnails can take a large amount of your CPU. If Windows Explorer is slow, you should try disabling the thumbnails, this really sped things up for me. Here's how to do it.

1 - Open Windows Explorer and from the Toolbar select "Oraganize" and then "Folder and Search Options".

2 - Select the "View" tab.

3 - Look for the option called "Always show icons, never thumbnails" and check the box next to it (for me, this was the first option in the list).

4 - Click the "OK" button.

That's all there is to it. This quick change to disable thumbnails can really speed up Windows Explorer in Vista.