Windows 11 file explorer is slow, lagging, hangs!

Unfortunately the solution by Sam Zürcher didn't work. I removed my phone, the external E,X,Y,Z drives from quick access and disabled OD Start up and it still gives that annoying hourglass just renaming or moving 2 small folders and you just sit and sit waiting for it to finish. My Windows XP was way faster with Explorer. I am using OneCommander and it is fast but kinda odd to use. They are making a fast computer slow with ms garbage software. Any update on his solution or a solution besides going back to a Windows 7 or earlier PC?

In my case, the Explorer only loaded some folders much more slowly. I tried all the tips in this thread up to this point, without success. Ultimately, I was able to narrow down the effect to my current profile.

With a new user profile, the problem disappeared.

By New User Profile, do you mean User Account (local not Microsoft)? If so, how do you do this without having to rebuild the taskbar, change a bunch of settings that are tied to your old account and even have to download a few Apps? Some are not useable by any but your old acct that you're trying to avoid using now.

Yes, that would mean creating a new local account. You would have to configure the new account/profile to your liking and reinstall some apps. If you are currently using a Microsoft account, that's OK. The first time you need to use a Microsoft service, it will prompt for your Microsoft account credentials. I prefer this arrangement anyhow, because then OneDrive doesn't start syncing stuff unless I tell it to.

While it is possible to transfer some settings from an old account to a new account via registry export and import, it must be done with great care to ensure references in that registry data are not pointing to the old account. Such references can be in binary format, so it's not always a simple matter of search and replace. Therefore, such settings migrations are not typically done.

When a problem is resolved by running under a new user account, it obviously shows that something about the original profile was contributing to the problem. With enough trial and error testing, the specific difference(s) causing the issue can usually be found, but that can be many hours of tedious work. When a problem happens often enough, somebody eventually goes to that trouble, but it can be very frustrating when the issue is difficult to replicate on demand.

Windows 11 24H2

In my case, the Explorer only loaded some folders much more slowly. I tried all the tips in this thread up to this point, without success. Ultimately, I was able to narrow down the effect to my current profile.

With a new user profile, the problem disappeared.

By New User Profile, do you mean User Account (local not Microsoft)? If so, how do you do this without having to rebuild the taskbar, change a bunch of settings that are tied to your old account and even have to download a few Apps? Some are not useable by any but your old acct that you're trying to avoid using now.