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
    2023-10-30T06:26:19+00:00

    Hi all

    I actually noticed a large improvement in the speed of my file explorer in the last month, but now with the latest Windows 11 October update, the performance and useability of the file explorer has become worse! I cannot understand how this is possible. Windows 10 ran perfectly well when it came to the file explorer and I struggle to understand how Microsoft allowed Windows 11 to be built on such a poor engine.

    Microsoft should be working themselves to death trying to fix this issue. They keep pushing the Windows 11 migration but how can they expect users to come from a pretty good Windows 10 platform to a platform that clearly needs a severe amount of work.

    MICROSOFT HOW MANY TIMES MUST USERS SHOUT BEFORE YOU DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT.

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  2. Anonymous
    2023-10-30T11:09:35+00:00

    I cured the issue with my PC by changing virtual memory to be System managed on my C drive and this cured the issue for me.

    System Properties - Advanced - Performance - Advanced - Virtual memory - Change to System Managed

    Hope this helps

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  3. Anonymous
    2023-10-30T16:24:26+00:00

    Good evening.

    I have made this change a few weeks ago when I read your first posting about it and it definitely improved the performance of the laptop.

    Very big difference for sure. Just disappointed that Windows 11 has become like this. Very disappointing for sure.

    Hope they get it sorted soon.

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  4. Anonymous
    2023-11-17T00:42:54+00:00

    Having the same problem here, in 23H2. Will this problem ever be fixed for Windows 11? Also having context menu problems with W11. Neither of these two problems are present on my work W10 machine.

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  5. Anonymous
    2023-11-20T23:24:18+00:00

    I had this same issue. I tried all of the suggestions in this thread, including changing quick access and paging file settings. None of them worked for me.

    What ended up working was a rebuild of the search index. I noticed a message saying that the indexing service wasn't running. I tried to start the service manually, but it wouldn't run.

    I found this suggestion and my problem is fixed.

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