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
    2023-08-08T15:14:09+00:00

    This worked for me. https://www.minitool.com/news/fix-windows-11-file-explorer-slow.html

    Disabling Quick access is a good way to accelerate File Explorer.

    1. Open Control Panelin Windows 11.
    2. View by icons and select File Explorer Options.
    3. You can also press Windows + S, type File Explorer Options, and press Enter.
    4. Make sure the General tab is selected.
    5. Click on the down arrow after Open File Explorer to.
    6. Select This PC, instead of Quick access.
    7. Click Apply and then OK.

    Disable Quick Access

    Also, you can check the Quick access list and unpin items from Quick access manually. Some users said removing all items from the Quick access list help fix the problem.

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  2. Anonymous
    2023-08-05T21:03:52+00:00

    From researching further, and attempting various things, I've found what was causing my own problem. For me, the problem was my computer had a drive mapped to a NAS/network location that I don't have turned on 24 hours a day. I mostly use my NAS for some backups and storage of old files.

    When I turned the NAS back on, File Explorer appeared instantaneously when I clicked it. When I turned the NAS off, the delayed and sometimes erratic File Explorer behavior began. I then turned the NAS on, and no delays in File Explorer once again. I turned the NAS off, and the delayed behavior was back.

    One of two possible solutions for now based upon what's causing it from reading others' solutions :

    1. In my case, I removed the drive letter mapping to the NAS and normal behavior was back for File Explorer again. I've repeatedly tested these on dozens of clicks and File Explorer starts, and it appears to be related to the mapped drive that wasn't available. So I just deleted the drive letter mapped to that location and created a shortcut on my desktop to that drive instead of mapping a letter to it in File Explorer. I also tested creating a shortcut to the network location *within* File Explorer and that, too, seems to work. So the functionality I seem to lose with this is referencing that network location/NAS by drive letter - I'll have to use UNC paths to create these shortcuts to network locations that aren't reachable 24 hours a day.
    2. On a side note, after reading other users having similar issues, in almost all other cases (ie, not related to a drive mapping), it was due to some form of a drive or file that was being referenced that File Explorer or the pc no longer had access to or very slow access. For example, some people saw the issue when they mapped to a location using Quick Access (or Windows referenced that location for them in Quick Access), so when they removed that location from Quick Access (or just turned off Quick Access altogether), File Explorer performed normally. I didn't test this specific issue out, but like I said, disabling Quick Access altogether (or removing that particular location from Quick Access) fixed it for them. Losing Quick Access wouldn't be a big deal to me if it came down to it.

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  3. Anonymous
    2023-08-05T19:35:04+00:00

    I just built a new PC (AMD 7950x3D + RTX 4080 + 2 Samsung 990 Pro NVMe drives) and experience several-second load times on file explorer. This is on a brand new machine. I've since installed several software, but have noticed this within a couple of days of installing Windows 11 on the machine, but didn't think I noticed it initially immediately after Windows install. I just tested it and from clicking the File Explorer icon on my taskbar to the window finally showing up, it was roughly 20-30 seconds. If I click multiple times during that period, I'd have gotten a separate File Explorer window to pop up for each click.

    I turned off my antivirus briefly, and for some reason, File Explorer started coming up immediately again. I turned it back on, and File Explorer was delayed again. So I turned it off again, but it's still delayed. So with antivirus turned off, I clicked File Explorer several seconds apart. Sometimes it appeared quickly, but most times it was slow to appear. Then I turned antivirus back on and File Explorer started appearing instantaneously for several attempts, but then the delayed response began again. So I'm guessing it's not my antivirus. lol. Bizarre behavior.

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  4. Anonymous
    2023-08-04T08:42:41+00:00

    Yes same issue even on the latest release of W11 with a high power machine.

    Open windows exporer and if you are lucky you can navigate over folders with a few 10's of files for a while then the dreaded progress bar starts to appear.

    Explorer is then always slow untill explorer is stopped and restarted in task manager.
    Worse is that file rename and file delete dont show changes until you select refresh.
    This has been going on for a while now, and I talk to other uers with radically different hardware platforms who all see these type of issues with explorer on desktop/laptop devices.

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  5. Anonymous
    2023-07-22T08:22:15+00:00

    also after update new version they say it was fix froze but after update it still slow

    even welcome screen become black after update

    win 11 has many bug

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