devices and Printers window loads real slow in windows 8.1

There is a fix which worked for somebody here..

http://www.eightforums.com/drivers-hardware/37129-devices-printers-menu-takes-forever-load.html

Last post in the thread..

When Windows 8 developer preview appeared, I tried dual booting with 7, then separate installations, and finally I dumped Windows 7 and just ran Windows 8.

I could not get them to co-exist with one another, and problems came fast and furious, especially chkdsk appearing every time I swapped over from one to the other.

Your problem may well stem from the fact that 7 and 8 don't really like each other.. :-)

My Devices and Printers appears very fast in 8.1..

Please excuse this stupid, newbie question, but how would I know for sure if I do or don't have a RealTek driver installed?  I know the HP driver update page for my particular machine offers them for download, so I assume I have a motherboard that uses a RealTek driver for its onboard sound.  I'm pretty sure, but not absolutely sure, that I didn't download and install the RealTek driver, since I used a Creative sound card, but how can I check to be certain?

Very interesting! I can confirm the use of RealTek integrated sound card with the latest drivers installed.

devices and Printers window loads real slow in windows 8.1 and loads fast in windows 7 both are on the same computer as a dual boot system

SeaTech (and others),

Do you have a motherboard who's onboard sound uses a RealTek driver?

I struggled with this problem myself and even went through the process of scratching my OS and starting all over, installing drivers and software until the hang occured.  I was quite surprised to find that it was the RealTek sound driver that did it...not bluetooth, not a printer, as most other reports regarding this matter suggest are the culprit.

It is DEFINITELY the addition of the RealTek driver.  Just to make sure it wasn't an interaction of the Realtek driver and some other piece of software, I scratched the OS again and just installed the driver, that's it, and the problem manifested itself.  Both the driver from the motherboard vendor AND the latest one from the RealTek website suffer this issue.  It seems the latest driver from Realtek doesn't ALWAYS hang, but still hangs most times.  I have reported the issue to both the motherboard vendor (AsRock) and RealTek, but I wouldn't hold my breath.

Now, computer issues are complex, and it may be something that MS has done or changed in Windows 8 that is interacting with the RealTek driver in a way that makes Devices and Printers hang, but regardless of the exact mechanisms or faults (either MS or RealTek or both), the combo of MS Windows 8, my board's hardware, and the RealTek driver are the cause of the problem.  Let's hope someone who can do something about it cares enough to take a look.