Let me preface this by saying that this isn't only a Directory Opus problem, I'm aware that it happens in Windows Explorer and other applications as well. I'm only hoping that maybe Directory Opus has an option for fixing this, or that some other cleaver user has come up with a work around.
I use a lot of Network Drives when I'm at work. When I bring my laptop home, however, and am not on the work network it takes about 2 - 3 minutes for Directory Opus or Windows Explorer (or anything that might look at "My Computer" for that matter) to open up because they try to connect to each and every Network Drive (drives that is inaccessible from home) and fail.
Putting the other applications aside, is there anything I can do to improve this for Directory Opus at least? I could create a batch script on my desktop to map and unmap the drives using "net use", but I'm really hoping to avoid that.
I'm not sure that I know exactly which option you're referring to, but I just tried Folders > Options > Prevent Automatic Loading of Certain Types of Folders and then selected "Network Drives" and "Ask before Loading" and it didn't ask nor did it seem to work.
Is there a different option that I should have tried?
That option won't speed up My Computer, if that's what's causing the problem.
You could avoid going to My Computer, though. That may prevent Opus from ever trying to look at one of the network drives.
(You may also need to ensure the network drives don't appear on any toolbars, e.g. the drives toolbar.)
It may not help, though. Often programs which aren't explicitly looking at the unavailable network drives get tied up waiting for other parts of the system which are looking at them. So you may have to disconnect them (or find a way to make them fail/timeout more quickly; e.g. put those machines in the hosts file pointing at localhost when you're off the network).