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on a new computer i have again troubles with the explorer, this time i think it is due to a wrong/old account which is no longer active: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
    2024-10-07T05:41:31+00:00

    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.

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  2. Anonymous
    2024-08-29T17:55:30+00:00

    Temp fix at best. I've had that setting turned off for some time and I still have the problem.

    I don't know if this has anything to do with it or not, but I do know that I ran Chris Titus WinUtil from the web (no downloads), and haven't seen any issues with Explorer in the last couple of days. I have multiple internal drives and two external USB storage drives, but no network drives which seem to be a real problem for Explorer to stay on top of.

    I will update this with changes!

    Oh, and just Google Chris Titus WinUtil and it should be within the first couple of topics. It's a script that gets run by copy/pasting in a command prompt window, so no downloads.

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  3. Anonymous
    2024-08-29T16:27:11+00:00

    I don't think it's a hardware issue because I have an 11th gen Core i7 with 128gb RAM, 6gb just for graphics, 1tb NVMe for windows and apps, and a 4tb NVMe for data. File Explorer still lags and gets stuck when right-clicking etc.

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  4. Anonymous
    2024-08-29T07:49:07+00:00

    On first glance, this seems to actually help.

    Will monitor the explorer behavior throughout the day to see if it solves the problem long-term.

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