- Windows 11 recently received a fix for slow File Explorer
- The fix is in preview and addresses excessively slow opening of folders by using preloading.
- Based on initial testing, it seems to work quite well, although some people are still not happy.
Windows 11 has a fix for File Explorer’s slow initial opening in preview right now, and some early testing indicates it works, although that doesn’t mean it’s ideal, and this whole issue still highlights a major shortcoming for Microsoft.
File Explorer is the application that activates to boost your folders every time you open one on the desktop, making it a fundamental piece of the interface machinery in Windows 11.
Since Windows 11 arrived, there have been complaints that it’s too slow the first time you open a folder or drive (and other complaints besides). Microsoft finally found a solution in a recent preview, which involves preloading File Explorer when the PC first starts up, and Windows Latest simply put this solution to the test.
We get carefully compiled video evidence showing the difference between Windows 11 opening File Explorer (in a virtual machine) for the first time as is and then with the preview fix applied to compare and contrast.
The upshot is that Microsoft’s cure clearly makes things much faster for launching File Explorer. Without the fix, it takes about two full seconds to open and reach a fully finished state (with all icons manifested, ready to go). With the fix, that is reduced by about two-thirds of a second (based on rough stopwatch timing).
It may even be closer to a full second, but whatever the case, there’s no doubt that it’s much snappier, and that’s without much running; A second test, with the system more bogged down with other tasks, shows File Explorer opening shape faster with the solution.
However, Windows Latest also notes that the preloading solution consumes some RAM, causing File Explorer to use 67 MB instead of 32 MB of system memory, which is a slight drawback (I’ll come back to that).
Still, overall, the website admits that “preloading makes File Explorer faster” and notes that, as a result, “using 35MB of RAM really pays off here.”
Analysis: Windows 11 needs a few different cans
Despite that overall positive conclusion, Windows Latest complains that File Explorer still isn’t fast enough, far from its startup time, and that’s true, but Microsoft only promised to fix the initial opening speed in this recent preview build, nothing more. Therefore, criticizing a solution that didn’t do something it didn’t promise to do seems unfair when it clearly achieves its goal (addressing slow startup).
Mind you, it’s not as unfair as some of the other criticisms that have been leveled at Microsoft for this, such as Tech PowerUp, which proclaims: “Preloading File Explorer in Windows 11 doubles RAM usage and offers a minimal speed boost.”
A minimal increase in speed? How? It’s a decent speed boost in the worst case scenario, certainly worth it, and a really good performance boost in some scenarios (heavy loads), at least according to this initial test. (I suspect some PCs will also find an even bigger performance boost here, but that’s just speculation, of course.)
And yes, the solution doubles the RAM usage, but it doubles the consumption from a very small amount to a very small amount. In the grand scheme of things, is an extra 35MB that much? No, it really isn’t, and many of the criticisms leveled here against Microsoft’s solution seem overblown and cynical. And don’t get me wrong: I can be cynical about which software giant has the best ones.
So, with all that in mind, it’s worth stopping to think here, as I agree that the extra RAM usage isn’t ideal, but it’s also symptomatic of a broader problem with Windows 11. What Microsoft has done here is preload File Explorer, as noted, meaning that the app runs in the background automatically when Windows 11 starts up. Then, because it’s already there and isn’t loaded when you click to open a folder, File Explorer loads itself more agile way.
However, if Microsoft were to preload more and more apps and system components into Windows 11, those little drops of extra RAM usage would slowly add up to a more noticeable drain on system resources, so yes, this isn’t ideal from that perspective.
It underlines a bigger problem with Microsoft’s attitude towards Windows 11: we’re getting a faster fix instead of a proper fix. It works, but is far from ideal in its implementation.
What we really want is a completely smoother incarnation of File Explorer, one that solves not only the startup problems but also the overall performance weaknesses that Windows Latest points out. Is that going to happen? I hope so, eventually, but it seems like Microsoft is happy to patch things up as it goes haphazardly, rather than having a coherent, overarching plan to address Windows 11’s performance issues (which aren’t limited to File Explorer, it should be noted).
Is this the way to run a flagship operating system, the reigning monarch of the desktop operating system world? I would suggest that it is not; and more specifically, it is worth wondering how, back at the launch of Windows 11, did File Explorer end up in the state it was in at the beginning? It seems that Microsoft wanted to include additional features (cloud syncing elements, along with underlying interface tweaks), and did so at the expense of performance in a rushed timeline.
In any case, what we not able What I mean is that this new solution doesn’t work. As a single piece of Windows 11 tuning, it offers a nice speed boost, with a fairly slight trade-off in terms of RAM, judging from this round of testing (the caveat is that we might find something different with wider use). Still, at this point, I don’t think you can argue with the fact that this preloading solution does what it says on the tin; First of all, I just wish Microsoft had a few different cans.
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