Gimp uses several directories to store such things as addon filters (plug-ins), scripts, brushes etc. but also it's swap and temporary files.

The top view in Directories controls Temp Dir and Swap Dir. The Swap Dir is by default in your personal Gimp directory located in your home directory. It's quite usual that your home dir is on a NFS (UNIX) or SMB (Windows) server. If it is then Gimp will memory swap slowed down due to network latency. It's there for very important that the Gimp directory is a local directory such as e.g /tmp under Unix or C:\temp under Windows. The temp dir is a directory where Gimp will store temporary files such as e.g palettes that you work with. The temp dir should not be in a public directory such as /tmp and but a directory that only you read and write have access to.

The sub categories such as Brushes, Patterns, Plug-Ins controls where Gimp will search for those items and in which order.

Change a search path:

Mark it by clicking on it, type the changed path or browse the files system with ... browse button, press enter to activate the new path.

Change search order:

Mark a search path, click on the up or down buttons to change the search order.

New search path:

Click on the new button (the paper) type the path or browse the files system with ... browse button, press enter to activate the path.

Delete path:

Mark the path and click on the trashcan.

Index