Windows 11 file explorer is slow, lagging, hangs!

I cleared the recently used file list and turned off showing them in the future as I never used it anyway. Starts up great now. Thanks.

So I purchased the latest i9 13900k CPU with the fastest 128GB RAM I could find, the fastest motherboard, the fastest GPU, fastest SSD. This is the fastest Desktop PC you can buy today. I install Windows Pro fresh.

Internet Explorer is Slow to load (10 seconds).

This thread is about File Explorer, so I assume you meant to say "File Explorer" and not "Internet Explorer". Is that correct?

It should be obvious that these sorts of delays (especially with such a fast machine) are not happening to everyone. There are a lot of variables involved, as is evident from the plethora of potential solutions posted. More details may be helpful in narrowing down the source of the issue on your machine. For example, is there always a 10 second delay or is that only with certain folders?

Please do look over the various solutions posted here. One or more of them may be applicable to your situation.

Is there a number you can call with Microsoft about this issue? Or are message boards the only options? Thanks for your help again.

Not sure about calling, but you should provide feedback about this to Microsoft via the Feedback Hub (⊞-F in Windows).

It would be interesting to see if installing StartAllBack makes any difference for the issues you're seeing. That tool is only advertised as changing visual elements, but I know that if you use its option to select the Windows 10 style ribbon in File Explorer, it also eliminates the folder type setting bugs in Windows 11, presumably because it makes Windows use an older File Explorer code base. Worth a try.

Almost forgot... Before trying StartAllBack, see if things work correctly just by using the older File Explorer that's available in Windows 11 by going through the Control Panel. That is, open the Control Panel and enter "This PC" or "C:" in the address bar. Try your file moves from that window.

I am having similar issues. I cannot rename my files half the time. But my biggest issue is that I cannot even move files. Even when I choose shift and pull the file to another folder (and it says "moving to folder"), it still just copies it. So I still have to delete the file in the original location (which gives me the popup that the file is open in Windows Explorer).

So now I'm just duplicating files everywhere. This is ridiculous. I've tried many of the suggestions on here and recently updated Windows 11 last night. No fix. This is crazy that MS has not fixed this already! Do they not check these issues we post about?

The thing is, these issues are not happening to everyone and, as you can see from all the responses, there are many different potential solutions. Think about processes that are running all the time that may affect performance, such as AV software (do you have anything other than Windows Defender?), encryption (are you using Bitlocker or similar?), third-party add-on visual or functional enhancements, etc. Also consider that large numbers of files, especially ones that have meta data, such as photos and videos, will potentially cause more delays. Splitting files into subfolders may help. Indexing is also a potential source of delays, whether its Explorer's built-in indexing or a third-party search tool. Try starting up in Safe Mode and see if that makes any difference. I wish there was a magic bullet for issues like these, but it typically takes a lot of trial and error to narrow down. Also keep in mind that the amount of available RAM can make a huge difference. Sometimes, adding more memory (RAM, not storage), can make all the difference. That's not always possible (i.e. a thin laptop may already be maxed out) but it's never a bad move when it can be done.

A small helpful tip for now... to move files, try cut and paste instead of dragging.

Thanks for your reply. I have a brand new desktop computer (less than a month) with a 12th Gen Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-12700 2.10 GHz processor and 128GB of RAM. It has 1 TB of storage so it is nowhere near being full on storage.. Our IT guy has been all over my system and has tried each of the things mentioned on this thread plus made sure permissions are correct for all my files and folders (they were), turned the ESET antivirus off (even though this doesn't monitor network files), and we don't have bitlocker running at all, etc. We have checked it all and can't find any other sources suggesting anything else. My files are not humungous. They are mostly pdf's that were converted from Microsoft documents. We aren't sure what 3rd party visual or functional enhancements would be that you mentioned. The oddest thing is that we kept my old work computer that had Windows 10 on it. So I can remote into it if needed for a little while. I've tried all these issues on the Windows 10 file explorer with NO ISSUES. And I don't have any programs on this computer that the Win 10 version doesn't have on it. In fact, I have alot less programs and files on this new computer. I'm at the point of starting over and installing Window 10 on this new computer. It will suck to make him reload it all but I can't live with a computer that won't allow me to move, delete and rename files. Oh and I've tried the cut and paste. Does the same thing - gives the error that the file is open.

Is there a number you can call with Microsoft about this issue? Or are message boards the only options? Thanks for your help again.