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on a new computer i have again troubles with the explorer, this time i think it is due to a wrong/old account which is no longer active: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
    2023-11-17T17:04:38+00:00

    It has nothing to do with your hardware. Its Windows update 23H2. Microsoft redesign Explorer from the ground up. It’s slow and sometimes doesn’t load at all. You’ll need to downgrade to 22H2 to solve the issue at this time.

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  2. Anonymous
    2023-11-14T07:35:13+00:00

    Hi so i had a similar issue, but it was fixed as soon as i cleared the file explorer cache from this link https://www.businessinsider.com/guides/tech/file-explorer-freezing-windows-11 .

    Thank you so much for help. I tried resetting explorer.exe and, rebuilding windows indexer, disabling it as well as the antivirus. Only once i cleared the File Explorer Cache from the file Explorer Options,
    Thanks again.

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  3. Anonymous
    2023-11-10T14:33:26+00:00

    I think this is a completely different issue but I also have the same experience. The search is horrible. I have a file named "A12345 & 54321 other text" and if I search for 12345 nothing is found but when I search for 54321 it'll find it. So search won't work on partial matches. Essentially useless.

    agreed!. I can go to a directory, list the files, and then do the search on any file name that is in the list. I came up with nothing found. I can see files with that name in them yet File Explorer says no match.

    Maybe it is because it is a USB drive but they have done something to flie searching. Maune to sell more cloud space.

    to make a partial search in File Explorer, use the 'contains' operator ~=

    e.g. ~=12345 or name:~=12345

    see also 'Query Operators' https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/search/-search-3x-advancedquerysyntax#query-operators

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  4. Anonymous
    2023-11-10T14:04:38+00:00

    I think this is a completely different issue but I also have the same experience. The search is horrible. I have a file named "A12345 & 54321 other text" and if I search for 12345 nothing is found but when I search for 54321 it'll find it. So search won't work on partial matches. Essentially useless.

    agreed!. I can go to a directory, list the files, and then do the search on any file name that is in the list. I came up with nothing found. I can see files with that name in them yet File Explorer says no match.

    Maybe it is because it is a USB drive but they have done something to flie searching. Maune to sell more cloud space.

    Was this answer helpful?

    1 person found this answer helpful.
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