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on a new computer i have again troubles with the explorer, this time i think it is due to a wrong/old account which is no longer active: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

2023-10-12T15:41:14+00:00

I agree, clearly MS must know.
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Anonymous

2023-10-12T15:29:02+00:00

Yes it is a bit faster but still a lag that I think is unacceptbale (only 1-2s though) in synced locations. Windows 10 was always instant.

Very snappy going through the folder tree on the right as an alternative in both explorers.
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Les Ferch 10,361 Reputation points Volunteer Moderator

2023-10-12T14:40:50+00:00

Some of our machines are still Windows 10 (mainly to avoid the sluggishness of Win 11) and the speed is great on these.

Is the speed great on Windows 11 if you use the Windows 10 Explorer (by going through the Control Panel)?

For details see: https://lesferch.github.io/OldExplorer/
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Anonymous

2023-10-12T11:00:19+00:00

22H2 22621.2428. Had not used winver in over a decade. Just use the About page. Part of that delay is due to setting aside additional resource space for multi-tabs, which Win10 did not have (Notepad inherited the same delay since it was given multi-tabs). The price we pay to have graphical displays, so I am not so concerned about it (my delay is only about 1/2 second, except when my root C:\ HDD goes to sleep). I simply hope that 23H2 will fix the resource accumulation issue. Tested without using my external data drives and that issue almost disappears, usually remaining at about 65-75MB, though it comes back, especially when using my external Blu-Ray R/W disc or the external HDD's.
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