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on a new computer i have again troubles with the explorer, this time i think it is due to a wrong/old account which is no longer active: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
    2023-10-06T03:35:21+00:00

    It can’t be a memory leak. I have 128GB of RAM…….

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  2. Anonymous
    2023-10-06T01:50:58+00:00

    Nice recap! I know that in my case, I'm not actually sure what category I fit into. All I know is that, after a restart, file explorer works fine, but only for a couple of hours, maybe 3. Not a week or so like the comment above suggests. I don't use One drive at all and have two google drive accounts. When I click on file explorer it goes into, what seems to be a search mode, where it's searching the PC in order to display the correct information. 3+ to 15 second delay, after which explorer works fine. But if I go to some other program for a time and go back to explorer, it'll do the hesitation thing again, seemingly reading what is on the PC in order to display it.

    All I know through all this is that W11 is definately not worth the hassle. If I could I would go back to W10, but that time has past and I'm stuck using W11.

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  3. Anonymous
    2023-10-05T20:56:39+00:00

    The only solution that works, albeit temporarily, is to click on the three dots nest to the "view" tab, then click on "view" and then click on "reset folders". Once you do this, File Explorer is fast and responsive again - for about a week or so, then you have to do it again.

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  4. Anonymous
    2023-10-03T20:32:59+00:00

    That did not work for me. Every night I backup my system and shut it down. Restart clean each morning.

    This system has only a 1TB SSD so I use external storage on USB drives. THey work but access is extremely slow.

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