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

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

0 comments
Answer accepted by question author
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on a new computer i have again troubles with the explorer, this time i think it is due to a wrong/old account which is no longer active: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

Was this answer helpful?

80+ people found this answer helpful.
0 comments

276 additional answers

Sort by: Most helpful
Most helpful Newest Oldest
  1. Anonymous
    2023-11-09T23:28:37+00:00

    If you bring up task manager, scroll all the way to the bottom of the process list and check how many background copies of Windows Explorer are listed there. Often there will be two, with one eating lots of memory, anywhere from 100MB to 8,000MB. The higher the number, the slower it runs. Do a Restart Process on the big one to eliminate it and I/O speed will immediately climb. This is usually due to external drives. I have two, and if I access them a lot, this reserved space keeps growing. It probably grows because competing processes seem to hang, so do not dispose of memory. I would hate to think this is due to a memory leak. It never started happening until multiple tabs were added to Explorer. I wonder if tabs do not totally shut down, kind of like how the new version of Notepad will not actually close a file if you just exit the app, which comes back up if you open Notepad again, but have to specifically close its tab (useful, but also a pain).

    I am going to conduct an experiment and specifically close the tabs in Explorer from here on out, to see if this issue persists.

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments
  2. Anonymous
    2023-11-07T08:52:39+00:00

    Also what build are you on and what Insider Channel?

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments
  3. Anonymous
    2023-11-07T08:41:23+00:00

    There seems to be a lot of file explorer updates in this update https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/topic/october-31-2023-kb5031455-os-builds-22621-2506-and-22631-2506-preview-6513c5ec-c5a2-4aaf-97f5-44c13d29e0d4

    I have this though and sadly folder navigation is still as sluggish when there are a lot of synced items on SharePoint (our specific issue). I'm not seeing the new header UI yet though so maybe it will kick in. Are you? I've probably messed with my settings too much to attempt to fix things!

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments
  4. Anonymous
    2023-11-07T01:20:39+00:00

    I have the same issue but I 'think' I have narrowed it down. When I open explorer and 'Right Click' on a jpg file it take ages to get the menu HOWEVER if I do the same with any other non picture file it opens immediately on Right click - does this help ?

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments