I really liked Windows 10, as many of you who have read my articles here at Neowin over the past decade or so already know. However, when support for Windows 10 ended (outside of ESU) last month, I decided that it's time to finally pull the trigger on Windows 11. I should mention that Windows 11 was not new to me, I've been using it for some time on my work PC, Neowin's review for Windows 11 in 2021 was penned by me after I had published a couple of dozen Closer Look articles to analyze the OS in-depth, and I had been using the OS in a dual-boot configuration on even my personal PC since that time as well.
All of this is to say that while I like Windows 10, I don't think that Windows 11 is awful either. I think it's a solid operating system with a few flaws, especially with regards to how Microsoft prioritizes fixes.
One of the major gripes I've had with Windows 11 so far is that File Explorer is really slow. It's essentially broken in terms of launch performance, which is unfortunate considering how it's a core functionality that deserves way more attention from Microsoft given its plethora of use-cases. It worked pretty much flawlessly on my Windows 10 machine, but it's horrendously slow after I upgraded to Windows 11 on my supported PC. That is why I think that going into the specs of my machine is irrelevant, because my experience across the same machine warrants a direct comparison.
When I launch File Explorer from the Taskbar (where I usually keep my most-used items), the window opens up almost immediately, but then it takes over a second for the UI to load, keeping a blank screen with the text "Working on it..." in the interim. This happens regardless of how frequently I launch File Explorer or how underutilized my device's resources are. See the screenshot below to see what I mean:
While this doesn't completely break the tool for me, it definitely breaks my productivity flow, as it's a bit annoying to wait over a second for a core OS component that basically offers access to your entire filesystem to load. It's even more ludicrous that this issue wasn't present in Windows 10, but for whatever reason, it's consistent in Windows 11. Don't fix what is not broken, Microsoft.
The good thing is that Microsoft has finally acknowledged this issue and is implementing a workaround to fix it. In its latest Windows 11 Insider build 26220.7271, the Redmond tech giant has announced that it is testing an implementation where it will preload File Explorer in memory by default so that it launches much faster. This is a backend change that should essentially be invisible to customers outside of a performance boost, but there is a configuration available that allows you to turn off this behavior. It's unlikely that customers will opt to do this unless they are highly constrained on PC resources.
All in all, I'm very excited that Microsoft has finally decided to fix this issue, even if it's in a bit of a roundabout way. What did it change in File Explorer between Windows 10 and Windows 11 that would have caused this performance degradation? We may never know, but it's at least heartening to see Microsoft responding to major pain-points for consumers.
A week ago, Microsoft's Windows chief did acknowledge that the company is aware that there is a lot to fix in Windows still, despite the firm's emphasis on pivoting Windows to an 'agentic OS' in the future. Although a performance boost for File Explorer doesn't fix everything that wrong with Windows 11, it's at least a step in the right direction.