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Windows 11 File Explorer EXTREMELY Slow Unless Restarted Every Few Minutes
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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62 answers
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Anonymous
2023-08-30T00:02:11+00:00 -
Anonymous
2023-08-23T14:49:34+00:00 For me once I attached to VPN and my mapped drives resolved the progress bar disappeared.
WOOHOO!
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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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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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Anonymous
2023-07-22T08:19:37+00:00 i have same problem too
it take long to load