Windows 11 file explorer is slow, lagging, hangs!

Anonymous
2022-11-06T07:07:24+00:00

Hi,

I have a very strong PC with Samsung 970 EVO Plus NVMe, Intel i7-9700K, 32GB Memory and ASUS ROG Strix Z390-H Gaming.
When my PC was on Windows 10 there was no problem with File Explorer but after upgrading to Windows 11 I am facing a problem with file explorer slow, lagging, hangs even when just renaming a file.
Only full PC restart is solving the problem for a short time.

How to solve this problem on windows 11 please?

Thanks,
AG

Windows for home | Windows 11 | Files, folders, and storage

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Anonymous
2022-11-28T14:17:19+00:00

I also experienced Lags with the Explorer:

  1. On Windows 10, i could solve them by removing external file-drives (SMB) from Quick-Access. I created a folder with Links to the drives instead and explorer was fast again. Probably the explorer tried to connect to these drives and for some reason failed, even though the connection was up and working.
  2. On Windows 11 on a new computer i have again troubles with the explorer, this time i think it is due to a wrong/old account which is no longer active:
    Image The problems came with the "Home"-Button, which was added at some point. Also the "Please sign in" only shows when selecting the "Home"-Button.

This might also be related to an account i am unable to remove:
Image
Clicking on 'Manage' opens the login-page for the first account and i can not find the old account in the first account to remove it.

Can your problem also be associated with one of the issues above?

Does anyone know how to solve the second issue by e.g. disabling the "Home" button, changing the account in the explorer or removing a no longer existing old account?

Updated Info / what i use:

  1. Don't use mapped Drives oder External Folders in Quick-Access. Keep all pinned-directories pointing to local files / folders. Instead, save them as files / links:

Image

  1. Disable OneDrive.exe in StartUp-Apps. If this still does not help, completely disable or remove onedrive: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/turn-off-disable-or-uninstall-onedrive-f32a17ce-3336-40fe-9c38-6efb09f944b0 
  2. 'Home' as startup-folder seems to also be slow, change it: https://www.digitalcitizen.life/how-set-start-location-file-explorer-windows-10/
    Image

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  1. Anonymous
    2023-09-27T07:55:52+00:00

    Looks more and more like having to move to MacOs...

    I have now an older HyperV with Win 10 that is almost all the time in 100% Disk usage, despite almost nothing is actually transfered, outside pagefile.sys, telemetry, etc

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  2. Anonymous
    2023-09-20T15:06:30+00:00

    I have noticed that since multiple tabs were added, File Explorer can slow down because old instances close, but do not seem to always release their resources. This can slow File Explorer to a crawl. If we look under Task Manager / Processes, then scroll to the bottom for the Windows Explorer entry down there (not the ones that might be at the top). we might find that instead of it having a ~65MB footprint, it can be as high as several GB. I have seen it climb as high as 8GB before it becomes so slow as to hang on simple tasks. Sometimes there is another copy running down there, at about the right size, but we can ignore it, though we can restart it, which will instead just close it. On the huge one, select it, then select Restart Task at the top. This will close this monster and restart it at the proper size. It will also close the Status Bar, but only momentarily. The status bar will return intact after Explorer restarts. If any File Explorer instances were up on the screen (the ones reflected at the top of the Processes List), they will still be there.

    Hope they get this fixed soon. The above workaround is better/faster than a System Restart, but it is lame we have to do it at all. Driving me nuts!

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  3. Les Ferch 10,361 Reputation points Volunteer Moderator
    2023-09-13T13:08:59+00:00

    HGi, there is no folder "AutomaticDestinations" in the "recent" folder? This is surely a bug with Windows 11, I have 3 new dell laptops all with the same issue. It is really quite annoying

    It should be there. Try pasting this entire path into Explorer's navigation bar and then press Enter:

    C:\Users%username%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Recent\AutomaticDestinations

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  4. Anonymous
    2023-09-12T21:36:58+00:00

    I think also cloud folders are faster. But to be honest I might have fixed earlier with the tips I already shared and quoted on

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