Microsoft finally improves File Explorer launch speed in Windows 11

Microsoft has been working consistently to improve the Windows 11 user experience over the past few months and has now rolled out a new change. Microsoft released KB5095093 as an optional preview update for Windows 11 24H2 and 25H2, and the headline upgrade is a faster File Explorer launch.

Instead of preloading the app in the background (the fix Microsoft shipped last year that roughly doubled Explorer's memory footprint without actually closing the gap with Windows 10), this update reorganizes the Home tab layout itself. Microsoft hasn't gone into detail on exactly what changed under the hood, only saying the update "improves the speed and performance of File Explorer" on launch.

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A few smaller fixes ride along with it. The address bar should show folder paths and suggestions without freezing, mounting disk images like ISOs and VHDs feels less sluggish, and a folder-renaming bug that kept re-selecting text (or ignoring case-only changes) has been patched. There's also a fix for a BITS-related bug that was causing shutdown delays.

This one's part of a bigger pattern that we have been tracking on TweakTown. Microsoft's Windows Shell team has been chipping away at File Explorer for months now, first with the preloading approach, then with a WinUI 3 rewrite that reportedly cut memory allocations by 41% and shaved 25% off launch-time code execution. Windows Shell product lead Tali Roth said back in May that the team was working on "targeted optimizations" beyond just preloading, including trimming disk reads and reducing hangs across the board.

It also lines up nicely with Microsoft's Project K2 initiative, which has already brought a movable taskbar and reworked Start menu sections, with SteamOS reportedly used as an internal benchmark for where Windows 11 needs to catch up. All of this is part of Microsoft's push to make Windows 11 more competitive in the current market, where gamers are rapidly jumping ship to Linux.

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None of this will make File Explorer feel like a different app overnight, and Microsoft still hasn't shared hard numbers on how much faster this specific update makes launches. Anyone curious can grab KB5095093 manually through Windows Update now, or just wait for July's cumulative update, when it rolls out automatically.