Windows 11 File Explorer EXTREMELY Slow Unless Restarted Every Few Minutes

Anonymous
2023-01-30T20:51:39+00:00

Hello all. I have been researching this issue for a while, but none of the suggested fixes I have found and tried have had any effect. I've tried numerous setting change suggestions with indexing, File Explorer options, etc, but nothing has improved this issue even slightly. Even a complete clean install when I recently upgraded my SSD had no effect.

The issue is that my file explorer starts out normally fast when first opened. For example, opening my downloads folder(located on my desktop) and fully populating all thumbnails, etc, takes about a second the first time you do it. However, within a few seconds that speed is replaced by EXTREMELY slow performance. For example, if I open a subfolder under downloads, then attempt to return to the downloads folder, it will take 45 seconds to 2 minutes to perform the same action is just did in less than 2. During this time, CPU load never exceeds 10%, Disk usage never exceeds 1%, and Memory usage never exceeds 25%. The second or third navigation request within Windows Explorer will start the issue every time. It will stay this way until you restart Windows Explorer from the Task Manager, upon which it will be normal speed again for a few seconds, then immediately revert to the exceptionally slow behavior. It is so slow that the fastest way to navigate is to constantly restart the process every time you need to change folders. All other programs and features operate perfectly normally.

This is not a hardware speed issue, as Windows 10 ran perfectly fine on this machine. It's an i7 8700K with 32 Gigs of RAM on a Gigabyte Z390 with a Samsung Evo 980 M.2 SSD. This should be lightning quick at such tasks.

I could really use a hand here, this is a completely unacceptable situation.

Windows for home | Windows 11 | Performance and system failures

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  1. Anonymous
    2023-04-08T08:37:21+00:00

    Slight correction, James. Microsoft MVP giving us a long list of possible fixes, NONE OF WHICH ACTUALLY WORK. None of the many possible fixes I have tried over the past few months has even put a dent in the issue. The only thing that makes it slightly faster is not using thumbnails at all, but I really need them for my use case. This issue is obviously endemic to Windows 11.

    It's possible that there is a problem with third party drivers or something that contributes to the problem, but nothing I am using is at all rare or unusual, and the problem resurfaces immediately after clean windows reinstallation, so it would have to be one of the basic system drivers that get loaded up right after you clean install. The most exotic thing I had loaded by the time it came back was Chrome. LOL!

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  2. Anonymous
    2023-04-07T23:37:19+00:00

    I am also experiencing exactly the same issues. None of the methods I've tried so far have worked (which even includes clean OS installation).

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  3. Anonymous
    2023-04-06T11:17:43+00:00

    "Me too" to all the complaints about the search function in File Explorer. Snails would be ashamed to move so slowly. The fundamental purpose of File Explorer software is to explore files; if it requires a Microsoft MVP to give users a long list of possible fixes for such a basic tool as searching, the software is basically not fit for purpose. This really needs to be fixed.

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  4. Anonymous
    2023-04-03T01:38:57+00:00

    I have same issues on fast machine (i9-12900 64m M2). In addition often my USB keyboard is not

    very responsive. Have used resource manager and Process Lasso and a 3rd party replacement for file manager, all with little success. I rarely tax this machine above 10%cpu primarily for my ham radio programs. It also occurs when I am running nothing!

    Grrrrrr!

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  5. Anonymous
    2023-04-01T21:06:37+00:00

    Yeah, the problem is mine does not do that, as in work like it should. I don't use One Drive, have well and truly fast enough hardware to run this with no issue and indeed it does run with no issue for a few seconds to a minute each time you restart the process. That alone demonstrates clearly that the hardware is not the issue, nor is the settings. It's something in the software that was changed from previous Windows versions, because this same hardware ran blazing fast on windows 10. The only delay I ever had before was when I was accessing a spinning platter storage drive, which is to be expected vs SSD.

    Many people are having this problem, I've found literally dozens of help threads asking for assistance with this exact issue. Someone at Microsoft needs to start taking it seriously and find a fix. Changing settings does nothing at all for this issue, I've spent hours and hours trying suggestions from all of these threads, nothing works, even slightly.

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