Microsoft's plan to speed up File Explorer in Windows 11 backfires: double the RAM, still slow

Microsoft's plan to fix the slow performance of File Explorer in Windows 11 involves having the app pre-load on startup, and that's it.

Microsoft's plan to speed up File Explorer in Windows 11 backfires: double the RAM, still slow
Comment IconFacebook IconX IconReddit Icon
Senior Editor
Published
1 minute & 45 seconds read time
TL;DR: Windows 11's File Explorer remains slower than Windows 10 despite a fix that preloads the app at startup, doubling its RAM usage without significantly improving speed. The slower performance stems from Windows 11's shift to modern WinUI/XAML elements, though new features like tabs offer added functionality.

Microsoft's Windows 11 is widely considered to be in a pretty rough spot thanks to ongoing performance issues, unnecessary features taking up system resources, and bloat from AI, ads, and telemetry. One notable issue that many have been pointing out, which recently got a 'fix', was the slow performance of File Explorer, the main app for accessing files and folders.

Microsoft's plan to speed up File Explorer in Windows 11 backfires: double the RAM, still slow 2
2

Microsoft's solution was simple: pre-load the application at startup, have it sit there in memory so that when you click on the File Explorer icon or run the app, it fires up instantly or at least a lot faster than it used to. 'Just have it load into memory on startup' is not exactly an elegant solution, and per this new report from Windows Latest, the execution sounds a little half-hearted.

With the File Explorer fix available via Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26220.7271 (KB5070307), the app's resource usage effectively doubles, jumping from 35MB to over 67MB. In the era of PC builds with 16GB, 32GB, and 64GB of memory, this isn't much and wouldn't be noticeable. However, it looks like doubling the amount of RAM used by File Explorer hasn't really solved the speed issue, as it's still slower than Windows 10's File Explorer.

On top of that, you need to slow down a video comparison to 0.25X speed to see the minor difference the update makes to File Explorer's performance on Windows 11. The update also has no effect on right-click context menu opening, which is still sluggish compared to Windows 10. If you're wondering why File Explorer runs so slowly compared to Windows 10, even after this "fix," well, it comes down to how the app works.

According to the report, Windows 10 File Explorer used Win32 for UI elements, with Windows 11 moving the overlays and UI to the modern WinUI/XAML platform while still retaining the legacy core of the original. And with that, these new UI elements are slowing down the app. On the plus side, File Explorer in Windows 11 supports things like tabs, which is a definite advantage over older versions.