Windows 11 file explorer is slow, lagging, hangs!

Anonymous

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

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Anonymous

I also experienced Lags with the Explorer:

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.
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on a new computer i have again troubles with the explorer, this time i think it is due to a wrong/old account which is no longer active:
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:

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:

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:

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
'Home' as startup-folder seems to also be slow, change it: https://www.digitalcitizen.life/how-set-start-location-file-explorer-windows-10/

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276 additional answers

Anonymous

2024-05-20T06:02:10+00:00

The folder options fix in the above post has worked for me for a couple days now. Normally the lag is within a couple of hours of restarting my pc, but this has held up for two days without the need to restart my pc.

Interested to hear what others find with this fix!
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Anonymous

2024-05-20T05:50:51+00:00

anyone else figured out the issue? I've been through geek squad about 3 times now and they all quit.
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Anonymous

2024-05-17T16:31:08+00:00

Actually, you can do this without the registry change. Just go into folder options (Three dots on menu bar (...)) and set "Open File Explorer to" "This PC".
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Anonymous

2024-05-17T16:10:29+00:00

Stopping Explorer from using the Home folder fixed it for me. it's very responsive now. I had lots of links to network paths in my home folder. I think explorer was trying to connect to each one on start or something. This doc explains how to stop using home. It involves making some registry changes.

https://winaero.com/remove-home-from-file-explorer/#:~:text=It%20was%20introduced%20in%20Windows,with%20Windows%2011%20build%2022593.
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