Shared file access is delayed if the file is open on another computer (150384)


The information in this article applies to:

  • Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional SP3
  • Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional SP2
  • Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional SP1
  • Microsoft Windows NT Workstation 4.0
  • Microsoft Windows NT Workstation 3.51
  • Microsoft Windows NT Server 4.0
  • Microsoft Windows NT Server 3.51
  • Microsoft Windows Server 2003, Standard Edition
  • Microsoft Windows Server 2003, Web Edition
  • Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition
  • Microsoft Windows XP Professional
This article was previously published under Q150384
IMPORTANT: This article contains information about modifying the registry. Before you modify the registry, make sure to back it up and make sure that you understand how to restore the registry if a problem occurs. For information about how to back up, restore, and edit the registry, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

256986 Description of the Microsoft Windows Registry

SYMPTOMS

If you try to open a file on a computer that is running Windows NT over the network and the file is open on another client computer that has sharing restrictions, there is a delay of approximately one second before the sharing violation error message is returned. If the client application is accessing a number of files on the server, this delay may become significant. These symptoms can be easily seen with any multi-user, file-based application, such as the Jet database engine that has shared database files.

NOTE: This behavior is not observed when accessing files on LAN Manager or Windows for Workgroups shares.

CAUSE

This issues occurs because an optimization in the Windows NT Server service delays returning a status to the client while it tries to internally resolve the sharing violation.

RESOLUTION

To resolve this issue, it may be best to turn off this optimization. To do so, you must make the following two registry additions.

WARNING: If you use Registry Editor incorrectly, you may cause serious problems that may require you to reinstall your operating system. Microsoft cannot guarantee that you can solve problems that result from using Registry Editor incorrectly. Use Registry Editor at your own risk.
  1. Start Registry Editor.
  2. Locate the following registry key:

    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\LanmanServer\Parameters

  3. Add the following information:

    Value Name: SharingViolationDelay
    Data Type: REG_DWORD
    Data: 0 (Default: 200)

    Value Name: SharingViolationRetries
    Data Type: REG_DWORD
    Data: 0 (Default: 5)

  4. Quit Registry Editor, and then restart the computer.

MORE INFORMATION

If the Server service receives a request for file that is already open, it receives a sharing violation from the local server. The service then waits for a short period before trying to access the file again. This process is repeated a number of times, internally to the server, to try to resolve the problem before returning to the client.

This feature is controlled by the following two registry values:
  • SharingViolationDelay

    Default 200 (msec)

    This is the period of time that the server waits between retries. If it is set too low, the server receives multiple sharing violations. If it is set too high, the Server Message Block (SMB) response to the client might be delayed, thereby reducing performance.
  • SharingViolationRetries

    Default 5

    This is the number of times that the server retries an SMB requested operation if it receives a sharing violation from the local server's file system. Operations that are affected by this include open, rename, and delete. This minimizes network traffic because if the server can resolve the sharing violation locally, the remote clientdoes not have to retry the operation.
Modification Type:MajorLast Reviewed:11/1/2004
Keywords:kbnetwork KB150384
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