Windows 11 - File Explorer always opening the Address Bar after cut copy paste any file - Huge Mess

I'm doing a lot of copy/pasting and deleting and it is driving me crazy, because once at work, I still use a Windows 10 machine and it's such a relief not dealing with this.

I almost feel like I'm gonna wipe my computer and switch back to Windows 10. It's crazy but this and some other annoyances that everyone knows and they refuse to fix.

Is Microsoft even listening or reading these posts?

It's frankly hard to believe Microsoft has failed to address this issue - more than a year into this nagging issue. I'm on build 24H2. Just fix this already!

While you're at it, fix the file renaming issue caused by OneDrive.

As at 4 March 2025 I'm still having issues with Explorer and the address bar. Don't know if it's the tabs, but even yesterday I was pasting a valid address into the address bar, and pressing enter, and it's like the entire action was just ignored or dropped. I had to quite explorer for it to start working again.

This is definitely a core problem that needs a focused effort to resolve. It's shoddy and contributes to a 'meh good enough' feel. I can't imagine Apple just letting stuff like that slide. Yes, take that as a challenge- aim for 'better than Apple'.

W11 Pro, 24H2 build 26100.3194

[Rhys Drummond]

W11 file explorer is broken, needs major work, and there is no user fix for the problems as far as I can tell.

Problem 1: Each windows has a strong attachment to the information in the address bar, and copying and pasting between windows causes all sorts of weirdness. The address of one window gets fixated on (usually the first window copying or pasting from), and causes chaos. When you go to click in an area to do something, it immediate goes to the address bar (who on earth though that was a good idea?). That's annoying enough. But if you stubbornly try to rush through you can paste things in a parent folder of the first folder you copied or cut from, or in the child folder, and not into the intended folder. If you aren't watching you end up with the wrong files in the wrong places, and it can be confusing.

Problem 2: Explorer windows often / usually don't auto-refresh, leaving any mess out of order on top of everything else.

Problem 3: Once you map a drive (I have to have two mapped through VPNs for remote work), you can F O R G E T trying to use explorer unless those drives are connected. If a mapped drive is not connected, you can open a shortcut to a C drive for example, but you cannot open "MY PC" (which is parent over the mapped drives). You will get the spinning wheel, explorer will crash, or you will have to control-alt-delete to kill it. Sometimes it will eventually come up, but often times it won't.

So called expert answers like "reset your settings, restart, check for updates, update your drivers" and the other useless "expert" suggestions that anyone could have guessed on their own are not solutions. The most laughable "expert solution" I've seen to problem three is "don't use mapped drives". Really?

What I have learned:

Problem 1: Before copying / cutting / pasting, click in an explorer window's search bar twice, THEN do what you want to do. If you can train yourself to do that as annoying and time-wasting as it is, you won't have the chaos I mentioned with files where you don't want them and not where you do, or with fighting a highlighted address bar that won't let you do anything else until you escape out.

Problem 2: Learn where your F5 key is by memory and get handy with it.

Problem 3: Always connect mapped drive(s) (if applicable for you) right away when you turn on your PC. If for some reason you cannot connect your mapped drive(s), and file explorer is being a pain, delete the mapped drive and restart. *Of course you had better have the information to re-create that mapped drive so that you can use it when it become available again. As an alternative, disconnecting your internet adapter / connection can help, as Windows seems to know it can't reach those mapped drives (which it SHOULD know when trying to reach a disconnected drive!).

Sorry, those aren't solutions, just PITA workarounds, but it's what I've learned.

It's ridiculous, but MS has managed to screw up one of the core elements of Windows, which worked well for over a quarter century, until the current version of Windows 11. I waited as long as possible to move to W11, having gotten burned by bad MS OS's before, but to no avail. On top of the above issues, the same computers that worked very well on W10 will crash much more often using W11, and even new W11 computers seem to crash more than they should. Yes I know, some say "I have zero issues with W11", and I'm happy for them. But there are TONS of people with all three of the problems I have described above. I feel it's likely that issues are tied to certain combinations of hardware / software, and MS needs to put in the work to fix the issues.

Windows 11 needs a lot of work, which is inexcusable for a years-old OS that is replacing an "end of life" OS. Please Microsoft, fix Windows 11.

It still persists. I suffer from that bug for over a year now in my productivity environment. It is unbelievably disappointing that Microsoft seems to unable to fix such a very central bug in their software flagship, which becomes more and more hilarious though.