Constant freeze-ups, lock-ups-- and not just of Adobe Bridge either, the darned thing locks up my entire PC about every fourth or fifth time I switch previews of short WMV video clips, or even simply switch the application focus: from Bridge to the Desktop (or whatever, even Windows Task Manager), then back to Bridge.
System config:
S/W: CS3, Bridge V. 2.1.1.9
H/W: HARDWARE: WindowsXP SP2, Intel Core duo Quad 2 6600 CPU 2.4GHz 3.5Gb RAM, nVidia Quadro FX 3450/4000 video card, Creative SB X-Fi sound card
Well, no wonder it locks everything up. Windows Task Manager/Performance Panel shows that merely switching the application focus from the Desktop back and forth to Bridge briefly spikes my CPU to 100% usage each time I try to invoke Bridge! That's madness. And arrogant programming.
The root of the problem seems to be in the PREVIEW panel. Disabling Preview restores good performance. The only problem with that is: What's the point of having Bridge for videos if you can't use it to preview your clips? A work-around is to set the default video viewing application to Windows Media Player or Quick Time or whatever, disable Bridge's native Preview panel, then double-click on a thumbnail and "preview" it in the default video viewer. Seems to work OK with Windows Media Player. But what's the point?
THERE IS BETTER SOFTWARE OUT THERE--TESTED, STABLE, RELIABLE, LIGHTWEIGHT, HONEST, AND BEST OF ALL, COMPLETELY FREEWARE. I've used it for five years without any problems, any advertising or any kind of hassle at all. It's called XnView, at XnView-dot-calm. It will blow you away as a slide sorter, batch renamer, batch photo editor and general dog's body of an images manager. Try it, you'll like it... a whole lot better than one more Adobe scam: a lame span that won't scan.
Josh