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
    2023-05-17T08:56:22+00:00

    Meant the problem started in January - Friday the 13th!

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  2. Anonymous
    2023-05-18T17:50:38+00:00

    hi all

    After looking into this further on the microsoft forums, the incredibly slow file explorer is linked to a ram leak in the Windows Explorer application itself. This has been apparent since the release of the OS. How on earth did Microsoft release Windows 11 knowing that there's such a big problem.

    Can Microsoft please look into this!

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  3. Anonymous
    2023-06-08T19:07:48+00:00

    I have the same issue and it affects my productivity since i deal with lots of compressed files.. Instead my job finish for 2 - 3 seconds it goes like 15 seconds per file... I noticed the issues gone when I open my Task Manager but it occurs again after 10 mins .. Any luck getting it resolved?

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  4. Anonymous
    2023-06-08T20:19:25+00:00

    Same issue for me. With the new file explorer working on remote share (especially over a vpn) is impossible.

    Explorer lag when there are office files in a folder.

    If you open and close an Excel file explorer freeze for seconds.

    This happen from 22h2 on

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  5. Anonymous
    2023-06-21T07:18:11+00:00

    We are still stuck with this problem. Working on cloud drives such as OneDrive in file explorer is just terrible compared to Windows 10. File navigation in Windows 10 was quick and fast, where 11 has just slowed it down entirely. I've reverted back to Windows 10 in order to solve and fix this problem.

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