Windows 11 File Explorer EXTREMELY Slow Unless Restarted Every Few Minutes

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.

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.

First of all... Namaste... *Bows Properly*

I will be as decent as possible below, but have a LOT to say...

These problems persist no matter the system build, from the lowest of laptops, unto the highest of high end machines --like my new, not even half a year old AM5 7700X system on a high end MPG line MSI Motherboard with 6000MHz ram and a 3060 RTX video card with 144Hz refresh rate twin monitors, water-cooled, custom built machine.

Secondly... I have worked with PC ever since 1986.. and I have owned and used, EVERY version of Windows, with the exception of Windows NT and Windows Server. I still, even possess a copy of Windows 3.11 on floppy disks as a memento to history and posterity.. I....... Made....... Even....... The dreaded Windows Mooooollennium usable, functional, and stable... There is VERY, cosmically, little, I do NOT know about Windows.. My questions tend to stump even the designers and thus, I seldom, ever --have the need or desire to ever... post any questions.. I have ALWAYS.. loved and preferred Windows, until now.. and there STILL... isn't anything out there for average users, and many of "We Degreed Professionals", that is as versatile or accommodating, so keep this Olde Dragon's Words In Mind and not only Roll With It, but Run as well... Please do something positive about this situation you all created before it affects the profit margins even more than it already has, and before it furtheringly negatively affects Microsoft's reputation, and the rest of the community.

(((Always Remember... One Person had the idea in the first place; they made it into reality, and Windows became a phenomenal success (The Years past prove this). We... The Consumers... put you all where you are today.. Listen to us please, and do something about this ridiculous, heathen problem. For you all stand on the backs of all of us who put you there.. We.. the consumers... are the ground upon which you walk... not the other way around. )))

As the old saying goes....... "Pride Go'eth Before A Fall" Let's prevent the latter with a "Stitch In Time".

Thirdly.. The New..... Windows Explorer is the worst ever... I never wanted Tabs.. and never use them.. My clients don't want tabs, and never use them.. This problem with explorer persists With or Without usage of tabs... It doesn't matter.. It's the way explorer.exe has been Wrecked... that matters.. Cross linking the processing with other features has really retarded the functioning in the most frustrating of ways.. The Folder Tree on each open explorer window or tabbed window refreshes along with every file window during ANY change on ANY other window.. It's broken, bugged... Pull that moth out of the proverbial relay please.

Fourthly... Trying to turn Windows into a Microsoft version of MacOS is not feasible, and nor is it wise to so do. It is also unwise to try to add all this mobile device thinking with all these background TSRs from programs, that most of us will never use, which eats up all the system resources unless we disable them, and then... additionally being Even MORE Ridiculous enough to depreciate the settings panel for backgrounds tasks into the advanced settings of Each and Every app??, so we can't even control it properly and easily without going into EVERY FREAKING APP in settings to shut down the wasting of memory in order to restore any kind of performance to the OS??? This was a bad idea... And now even the File Explorer is Totaled? Come On Now? Really.... You folks know better... You folks KNEW this problem existed after you created the situation, and released it anyway... possibly in hope of someone out here in the wilds who is more clever than you could, and would fix the problem YOU ALL created for us, instead of doing right by all of us and not pushing something defective on us and then DEMANDING that everyone go to a DEFECTIVE OS October 14th of 2025 without providing extended support for the previous edition of Windows until you got it fixed.. Oh?? and let's be SUUUUUURE to mention, and to always REMEMBER this new hardware requirement issue and how much --Financial Hell-- that it is causing ALL OF US, in the middle of the WORST economic crisis since the Great Depression of the 30's!!! Gee... Thanks a Tonne of Tons. I totally understand the need for enhanced security because of what's happening in the world today, But Still!!...

Fifthly... First you all take My Briefcase away... Then you took most of Windows Update away from us... Then you mess up Folder Options so they don't work across all folders, and the settings don't remain or even work in the folder where they are applied or even globally when one uses the function... Then you all Ruin the Taskbar.. and I mean RUUUIN it.. TG that --is handled by someone else who actually Has.. Brains.. and Now the File Explorer is Virtually Useless thanks to this EXPERIEMENT of yours. Who's bright idea was that??? The bathroom attendant of the Executive Lounge? And one other mention most folks don't know... All but the most vital System Restore Points (like for Windows Update, a heavy program install that actually knows to call for a restore point, certain drivers, and perhaps one or two other mentions, are not made any more.. System Restore is vital and has saved both me, and my clients many times over the years, and yes... I already made mine own provisions for this, but most peoples don't know the daily restore point is not made any more, unless you make one, or make a task for it... etc., etc.

Sixthly... Idiot suggestions out of a book... The same useless so called fixes over and over again from "The Most Useless --almost the tech" don't help.. and I list them::

Clean boot

sfc.exe (to scan the system files)

safe mode

DISM

Reset the PC (**** NOOOOOO what a STUPID thing to say)

use Malwarebytes or anything like it *rolls eyes at a moronic suggestion #2*

REINSTALL THE PC (The Most Idiotic, Last Ditch Suggestion Ever!)

Here's what you all are to do... and everyone is thinking about it, and needs to hear it.. Just admit you all were wrong, and that you made a GHASTLY mistake... A lot less people would be A Lot Less upset with you all --if you do this.. Admit that you all are trying to fix it, and what you all are doing TO... fix it, and be more useful and productive with answers and assistance.. Actually BOTHER to TRAIN your personnel instead of handing them a list of prefab Q&A, with a quadruple emphasis on the USELESSNESS of the A part of Microsoft Q&A at this time. Furthermore... Provide a proper PHONE NUMBER again to speak with a live person once more.. You are a World Leading, Major Brand, and you unwisely think that only chat and forum, and let's be Certain.. to remember to mention the ridiculous Feedback App --is going to cut it?? Many of my clients, and obviously the rest of the worldwide community have gone round and round over these most recent years with the uselessness of it all.

At the Very Least!!! give us a way to go back to the OLD FILE EXPLORER while you all work on this unmitigated DISASTER... until you have it Definitely fixed and working.

All Right... I have said my Peace (Pun Intended)

Tschüsß

I also noticed this issue when the update came out and i use to use this feature quite a bit as well. Now I did find a look hole, if you go to upload you're images to a design space or app... you are able to drag and drop from there. However you can only do one at a time. I now have to constantly restart my laptop every hour or so and constantly restart windows file explorer and its like it takes forever for everything to synce if I move something from my screenshots to my google drive file or anything else. Im highly disappointed that as long as this issue has been out.. i still cant seem to get any type of resolution with it.

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.

Hello agin eveyone. OP here. This issue had largely solved itself for me for a few months. I figured they had addressed the cause in one of the updates, Unfortunately, it is now back worse than ever. I went on vacation for a few weeks and came back to a completely unusable computer. I can't even sort through my vacation pictures and videos on my computer, because it will not load the thunbnails.

At this point, I can't get it to actually fully populate thumbnails in any folder. It simply sits there with the progress bar at roughly 95%, forever as far as I can tell, and refuses to load the most recently added thumbnails, which are my vacation pics. I tried moving them to a subfolder, but that is even worse. In subfolders it will not even identify what type of file it is looking at, and just shows a weird blank white page icon and sits there processing forever.

Restarting the explorer process yields faster performance for rougly a second, then it immediately bogs down. Restarting the machine does nothing at all as far as I can tell.

This is a completely unnacceptable situation, and frankly, I want a refund on this POS software.

Oh, and as a side bonus, the file sort function no longer works correctly. It seems to randomly assign a date to all files, and numerous attempts to get files to appear in the order that they were imported to the machine have met with complete failure. In the past all I had to do was set it to sort by date modified, but now that does not work at all. Files I imported to the computer today will appear in much older sections of the folder, incuding much older than actual file creation. It makes no sense at all.