I think this may have resolved this problem for me as well.  I started having this problem in early 2020 when I bought a brand new AMD machine.  I didn't find this solution until I used the right search terms.  But the problem only affected Windows Explorer.  Whenever Illustrator was open, Windows Explorer performance was seriously degraded, with the cursor flickering. I've been going for about 2 hours and so far I haven't experienced the problem so thank you to the person who suggested the fix. ... View more

I'll report it.  I realized this morning that this problem doesn't just affect raster images, it's also affecting vectors. ... View more

Wow, as soon as I solve the other problem, the blurry image problem came right back.  Now I have a new detail.  I have one image.  It's a high quality, sharp image.  I duplicate it.  I resize one of the images by any amount. Then I zoom in on both and both look blurry.  The trouble is in resizing any image in the document. when I zoom in, other images are also blurry.  This blurriness is not a matter of the resizing. As soon as I click a little, the image returns to being perfectly sharp.  If you look at the two images. One is original image zoomed at 300%.  The other, I've duplicated it and scaled the duplicate slightly, then zoomed to 300% again, and both appear blurry.  If I click/zoom a little both become sharp again.      ... View more

I found the high performance setting.  Thanks. ... View more

OK thanks for responding.  Right now I'm doing a clean install of my preferences.  I notice that with Illustrator default preference the problem is not happening at the moment.  I've never used the default preference so maybe this is the problem.  If this doesn't resolve it I'll try something else.  But I don't see an option to change Graphics Perferemce to High Performance for Illustrator. Where is that? ... View more

We've all adjusted our workflows, but from time to time, I've missed it. If I don't catch it, it will be a mistake in my work, and mistakes mean problems and money.  It's amazing to me that Adobe is allowing this problem to persist. ... View more

It's Windows 10 version 22H2 ... View more

Updating the driver introduced a new problem.  Zooming in/out is jerky and not smooth at all. ... View more

Um, it was the driver. LOL  But, it's true that if I install an older version of Illustrator, the problem goes away.  But thank you for the advice.  That's one problem solved.  Thanks! ... View more

Yes, studio driver. Card is Nvidia 2080Ti.  It definitely meets requirements. ... View more

My driver was released in December of 2023.  This problem started before that on at least 2 earlier versions of Illustrator.  But I'll install the driver anyway. ... View more

If I go back to an earlier version of Illustrator the problems go away.  It's not Windows. ... View more

...And it's freezing and crashing. That has almost never happened. And as soon as I install this latest update, it freezes and crashes. ... View more

"The main purpose for modern versions of Illustrator is...." Finish that sentence with..."for me".   Nothing more.   'Illustrator is not, and should never ever be, a replacement for Photoshop." Again, off the deep end.  Who said it should be a replacement for Illustrator?  I actually used words like "basic image editing", which has been a part of Illustrator for as long as I can remember, but you're still talking about "replacement for Photoshop".   "Are you an Adobe employee, or executive? How do you speak for Adobe?" The features you're railing against are already in Illustrator. That would seem to suggest that Adobe disagrees with you but who knows, maybe Adobe regrets their choices.   "You're wanting Illustrator to do destructive editing to pixel based images." It already does!  What part of that is troubling you?  It already has quite a bit of destructive image editing tools and frankly I like those tools a lot.  I talked about the crop tool specifically and simply wishing it were able to crop more than one image at a time, and you jumped off the deep end about Illustrator replacing Photoshop.   "You can run actions to crop entire folders worth of images using Photoshop." Why would I waste time CREATING a fold full of images?  Make it make sense.  Why would anybody who understands the value of time export images out of illustrator into a folder, then use a batch action in Photoshop to crop them all, then bring them all back into Illustrator???   The only reason to do that is if you had no other choice.  Not because it make sense!  But with Astute Graphics plugin, I can select all of those images right there where they are in Illustrator and click a single button and crop them all at one.  Even with the wonderful batch editing of Photoshop, it is still a huge waste of time compared to a single click.  Didn't you mention that you use Astute Graphics plugins?  That feature is a part of their plugins so I'm guessing that you are refusing to use it because, "Illustrator is not supposed to do destructive image editing?"   I would bet money that if Adobe found somebody using Illustrator in a way that even Adobe had not thought of, they would happily feature that person in their promotions.  And I guess you would send them a message railing against the proper and improper ways of using their software.   "But you don't want to switch apps. " I don't want to waste time.   If switching apps wastes time, then you are correct, I don't want to do it.  In the real world, the work that people do in Illustrator involves images quite often.  I know it sounds crazy but it's true.  Having recognized that, Adobe saw fit to add a smattering of image editing tools directly into Illustrator.  That was good.   Adobe did the same thing with vector tool in Photoshop, and again with Indesign.  I agree with Adobe.  You mentioned Coreldraw.  Coreldraw has a whole lot more image editing features than Illustrator, plus their own full blown photo editor.  I never hear Coreldraw users saying that the image editing tools are wrong and shouldn't be there.  They love those tools and I used them too when I was a Coreldraw user.  ... View more

"Using Illustrator to crop images is like using a dinner fork to do gardening work." Adobe has had some basic image editing features for decades. If you disagree, then you should let Adobe know that. Furthermore, EVERY vector software has some basic image editing tools.  Your comment is like saying that a pickup truck shouldn't be used for carrying groceries.  Adobe recognizes the way that people actually work and that is why they've added those tools.   "I think Illustrator has enough duplicate features from Photoshop as it is. " Well, Adobe disagrees with you in general about the image editing tools in Illustrator.  I just think that if you're going to add a tool like that, then it should be properly fleshed out.  It's an interesting opinion you have there though.  If a person is working in Illustrator and needed to crop 30 images, it's better to take 30 time longer to do it in Photoshop, than to do it with a single click in Illustrator.    "Some people want a single application to "do it all," be an image editor, vector graphics editor, do multi-page layout, do 3D, etc -just so they don't have to switch between applications."..."Jack of all Trades, King of None."..   Well there it goes...  I kind of figured you would go off the deep end eventually. I talked about a crop tool that could crop more than 1 image.  And I guess you just want a good argument about something else. ... View more

If the problem is a poorly formed SVG, yet it's not a problem for Affinity Designer, then why would I make excuses for Illustrator which costs exponentially more than Affinity Designer?   For cropping images, doing it non-destructively is an option, but I'm talking specifically about the destructive kind.  Illustrator has a way of doing it that is slow, clunky, and can only be done on a single image at a time so it's not production friendly.  Astute Graphics allows me to select however many images at the same time, and it doesn't matter if my selection includes other objects such as text and vectors.  It will only operate on the images.  With a single click it crops every image.  I don't even have to carefully pick out images from among all of the other objects.  I can actually just do Control/A and select everything.  It saves a ton of time.  Illustrator should do that natively. ... View more

I agree with you 100% about the big picture. I also do the vast majority of my work in Illustrator, but I end up using these other applications as helper apps. And sometimes it's just shameful.  Why is Illustrator so bad with opening SVG files.  Why is Illustrator so bad at opening photoshop files when a cheap program does such a good job?  That's really all I'm saying.  And you mentioned Astute Graphics. I also use Astute Graphics plugins and sometimes I find myself thinking, Illustrator really should be doing some of this stuff natively.  One thing I do many times a day is batch crop a bunch of images.  The method that Illustrator implemented for cropping images is so slow that I debate with myself all the time whether or not I should just mask it to save time instead of fiddling with it.  But Astute Graphics plugin can grab 20 images and crop them all together with a single click.  I think Illustrator should be able to do that.  The crop feature in Illustrator is really inadequate. ... View more

Regarding the pdf documents, in my line of work I don't get to pick and choose the condition that they arrive on my desk.  Either way, if a $49.00 program can do it then certainly one that costs me $23.00 every month should be able to do it.  Especially considering that it is Adobe's own format.   We have to be realistic.  This is not a good look for Adobe. ... View more

I think the reall take home message here is that Illustrator is capable of opening a simple file without a problem.  It open via placing, drag/drop, or file/open.  All 3 ways work fine with the very simple photoshop file I created.  But, the more complex Photoshop file can only open in Illustrator as a flat image.  Look at these screen shots.  This is an even more complex layered photoshop file.  In Affinity Designer it opens beautifully with everything live in the layers.  In Illustrator, it's a flat image regardless of how I try to import it.  It's stunning to be honest.  Even if Affinity Designer is nowhere near as capable as Adobe Illustrator, it is far superiro at opening Photoshop files.  It's so much better that it looks like I'm making a joke here, but this is a poster template I downloaded from freepik so you could try it yourself.    ... View more

I just tried something.  I made a photoshop file with 5 layers. They're basically empty layers except I colored each layer a different color.  I dragged and dropped it into Illustrator and it created the layers.  This proves that Affinity Designer is better at this because Illustrator can not open the more complex layered Photoshop file which has effects, etc.  Affinity Designer brings all of that stuff in live. ... View more

I tried everything. File/open. File place.  Drag and drop.  I get the dialog with options to convert layers to objects but it still comes in as flat image. Link button checked/unchecked makes no difference.  If checked, you still have the opportunity to embed it, and when you do it asks to convert to layers or flatten layers.  The result is flat image no matter what I choose.    I agree that Affinity Designer has lots of limitations compared to Illustrator, but this particular situation it's making Adobe look ridiculous, and I'm feeling ridiculous.   This is not the only situation where Affinity Designer is better than Adobe.  AD can open webp images, no problem. Adobe can't.  AD can copy/paste transparent images from a web browser.  Adobe can't.  Those are things I can remember quickly because I'm dealing with them daily and pitifully using AD to "help out Adobe".  Another thing.  Affinity Designer can open pdf documents without utterly destroying all of the text.  Illustrator can't.  AD also doesn't have a problem with missing linked images.  It opens them as if they're not missing.  Still I can name a hundred things that Illustrator has better than AD, but for what I pay for Adobe software I truly expect it to be better at dealing with it's own formats.  Not being able to import this layered psd file into Illustrator is kind of unforgiveable. One more thing.  Illustrator is really bad at opening SVG files.  So bad that I use AD as my default application for opening SVG files. ... View more

All I know is that I have been using Illustrator for decades and I never had this problem before.  Everything in terms of the UI, monitor, etc are at defaults.  Even as I'm doing it now, I hovered, I got the scale widget, I grabbed it and suddenly it was the rotation tool. I can see what you're saying, that the rotation widget should appear just outside the corner, and it does that. So I move directly over the corner and I see the scale tool appear and I grab it and it turned back into the rotation widget just in time to frustrate me. ... View more