devices and Printers window loads real slow in windows 8.1

Initially Devices and Printers took about 2 minutes to open.

I have tried all the suggestions here (many thanks for posting) but to no avail.

1. Tried all combinations of the Bluetooth settings in Services (no difference)
2. Downloaded the latest Realtek driver for my Asus Z97-K(no difference)

etc etc

In the end I went back to my original idea of a problem with the build up of Generic volume shadow copies.

Device Manager showed thousands (too many to count) of Generic volume shadow copies attached to one of the hard drives. I reasoned that if I could get rid of them it would solve the problem. However they obviously couldn't be deleted one by one. The only way I could think of doing it would be to uninstall the errant hard drive. However, this held all my data. So what I did (shutting down and switching off the power to the computer and using an anti static wrist strap etc) was to open up the PC and unplug this hard drive. Then back to Device Manager and uninstall the now greyed out hard drive.

All of the Generic volume shadow copies disappeared. The only problem was they all come back when I reconnected the hard drive. So the next stage was to prevent this from happening. So....Control Panel - System - System Protection. All the drives are listed under Protection Settings. I clicked on the errant hard drive and then Configure. Ensure Restore Settings is set to 'Disable System Protection' and Disk Space Usage - Max Usage slider is set to hard left (0?). Then Delete all restore points for this drive. - Delete. Apply - OK.

Restart computer.

Now all the Generic volume shadow copies have gone and stay gone! It wasn't actually as straight forward as that as it entailed lots of trial and error and restarts.

Now Devices and Printers only takes 15 seconds to load which is possibly about the best it is going to get.

As always it is imperative to do a backup before you start!

I have turned off System Protection for all my drives (including 'C'. However it may be better to leave this protected?). System Restore never seemed to work properly anyway. I rely on the free version of EaseUS ToDo which works a treat.

Again, many thanks to Microsoft for setting problems for retirees with lots of spare time on their hands to try to solve.

PS Just tried Devices and Printers and it loaded instantaneously!

Agreed. Irritating answer and in the style I have seen before several times.

Try this. Worked for me.

http://itsolutionsblog.net/devices-and-printers-not-loading/

Much to my surprise, Kathleen Marshall's suggestion worked for me too. (Thanks Kathleen!)

Devices and Printers was taking several minutes to load. This was easily reproducible. I started the "Bluetooth Support Service" service and, lo, Devices and Printers now opens straight away. Go figure.

(I do have RealTek audio drivers on my system, but didn't have to touch them, nor did I touch the "Generic volume shadow copy" entries in Device Manager.)

It appears to have worked for me too.  I removed the RealTek driver and replaced it with the Microsoft HD Audio Device.  The device & printers and network folders seem to populate much faster now.  I would not expect that an audio driver would cause this issue.  I tried many other troubleshooting steps before coming across this post.  Thanks for posting this!!!

Late to the conversation but thank you!!!! Driving me crazy!!!

Uninstalled the RealTek driver from Device Manager and Devices and Printers opened up instantly.

mine is Realtek also.