Photoshop freezes when opening a file

The other day, I started noticing a major problem with my Adobe Photoshop installation on a particularcomputer. Everytime I went to open an existing file or create a new file, Adobe would lock up or freeze. Sometimes Photoshop would take nearly two minutes to open a file. Other times, the applicationwould simply stop responding and Photoshop would need to be closed with (Ctrl+Alt+Del) Windows Task Manager. This problem was occurring with both Photoshop CS2 and Photoshop CS3.

How to Fix the Photoshop Lockup or Freezing problem:

It seemed that Photoshop lockups were only occurring on one of my systems. Thinking back to any recent changes made on this particular system (HP laptop), the only recent change I could think of was the addition of a network printer. So I simply removed the recently added network printer from the system and launched Photoshop again. This time when attempting to create a new file, Photoshop responded quickly and instantly created the file as it used to.

To confirm that the added network printer was indeed causing the problem:

I reinstalled the networked printer and ran Photoshop again. Whenever attempting to create a new file, or open an existing file, Photoshop locked up, froze or stopped responding altogether after a period of time.

Photoshop Lockup Solution Conclusion:

If your experiencing Photoshop lockups or freezes upon creating a new file or opening an existing file, try to disable or remove your network printer and see if the problem resolves.

Additional Notes: I've noticed that opening files (offsite) from a networked server or shared folder causes slowdowns as well. So, in most cases, it's probably best to open file from your local drive.