Microsoft's fix for slow File Explorer: load it before you need it
- Reference: 1764085772
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2025/11/25/microsoft_trying_preloading_to_solve/
- Source link:
The update to File Explorer arrived in a [1]Windows Insider build for the Dev and Beta Channels, alongside the Xbox full-screen experience for PC and a point-in-time restore feature for recovering from failed updates.
File Explorer has ballooned over the years. In 2018, Microsoft open-sourced the original [2]Windows File Manager , a lean, mean file-wrangling machine.
[3]
Clocking in at just over 700 kB, the venerable application allowed users to perform file system activities, both on and off the network. It shipped with Windows 3.0 and was eventually put out to pasture with Windows NT 4.0 (although Windows Explorer had arguably superseded it in Windows 95 and beyond).
[4]
[5]
Windows Explorer eventually became File Explorer, and the application's utility increased, as did its weight. Performance suffered and - rather than reversing the trend of recent years - Microsoft's solution is to preload File Explorer in the background.
[6]Microsoft wedges tables into Notepad for some reason
[7]Microsoft exec finds AI cynicism 'mindblowing'
[8]Windows boss defends 'agentic OS' push as users plead for reliability
[9]Microsoft's first Windows 10 ESU Patch Tuesday release fails for some
[10]MS Task Manager turns 30: Creator reveals how a 'very Unixy impulse' endured in Windows
"This shouldn't be visible to you, outside of File Explorer hopefully launching faster when you need to use it," said Microsoft
Because despite pushing AI features onto user devices, there must be spare CPU cycles and memory for preloading File Explorer, right?
The change is experimental and rolling out gradually. Users can disable it via "Enable window preloading for faster launch times" in File Explorer's Folder Options, under View," said Microsoft.
[11]
It is hard to avoid the expansive tendencies of Windows as the operating system has aged. Yet preloading an application rather than examining what's slowing it down feels like treating symptoms, not causes.
Still, Microsoft has acknowledged the problem. That, at least, is a start. ®
Get our [12]Tech Resources
[1] https://blogs.windows.com/windows-insider/2025/11/21/announcing-windows-11-insider-preview-build-26100-7271-dev-beta-channels/
[2] https://www.theregister.com/2018/04/09/windows_file_manager_back_from_the_dead/
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/oses&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2aSXgqG77M6UudVc5rq_HOwAAAMc&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/oses&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aSXgqG77M6UudVc5rq_HOwAAAMc&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/oses&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33aSXgqG77M6UudVc5rq_HOwAAAMc&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2025/11/24/notepad_tables_support/
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2025/11/21/microsoft_ai_boss_comment/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2025/11/17/windows_agentic_os_feedback/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2025/11/17/windows_10_esu_fail/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2025/11/12/thirty_years_of_task_manager/
[11] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/oses&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aSXgqG77M6UudVc5rq_HOwAAAMc&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[12] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Re: Explorer
Not forgetting that rarely used external HDD that has to spin up before anything works.
We've gone from single core CPU @ 33MHz and <1MB RAM with instant Explorer to a multi-core (16+) @ 4GHz and 16GB RAM taking 20 seconds to start Explorer.
So it slows down faster too?
Pre-loading will make the slower-over-time happen sooner.
Effect since 21h2: Explorer gets slower over time (the four weeks between update reboots), simple actions like drag and drop, rename and so on get slower and slower. Until it crashes-restarts, or you taskkill and restart it.
If you never have more than two explorer windows open which you close when not needed, then you may not have that effect. But I do. That that, sadly, includes Server 2025 as well.
Keep in mind: I've disabled a lot of default shell extensions, all preview handlers, thumbnail handlers, "ask copilot" hack-ins and so on. And it still happens.
All I ever wanted
Was a graphical file manager.
How can it take MS 30 years to not deliver one, whilst Linux has ..... well you count them .....
reminds me of Windows prefetch
i think it started with Win7 (perhaps Vista)
OS was preloading all the most used applications at startup, so the total waiting time was the same, but you were experiencing it at every system reboot, even if you just need to quickly check a text file.
MAde a littel sense if you go for a coffee every time while the computer boots.
Re: reminds me of Windows prefetch
Treat the computer like a digger.
Turn it on, and immediately go for tea or coffee. Thus, the machine can warm-up/pre-load everything, so that when you return, it is ready for action.
What was old...
So this just goes to reinforce and confirm what I and other commentards here have been saying for...well, quite some time, actually: There are no longer any competent programmers employed (or contracted) by Micros~1.
And if anyone wants to try to convince that ClippyPilot is competent, I gotcha this bridge...
Bag of shite
“Yet preloading an application rather than examining what's slowing it down feels like treating symptoms, not causes“
Feels like tearing the symptoms? You are being way too generous!
MS is utterly incapable of writing any decent software. At best, they are totally incompetent. At worse, they are fraudsters.
Explorer
I still love that, in 2025, explorer just freezes/hangs if you have a network path that's unavailable ANYWHERE on your drive list.
You'd think that kind of stuff could have had a separate thread farmed out to check the connection and the explorer window say "Loading...." or something while it did but still remain otherwise responsive but no... we're just going to hang up all explorer processes (including file save/open dialogs) until we ascertain that all mapped drives are online, spinning up the storage unnecessarily, even though that's not what the user is looking at, and we're not going to let you do a damn thing until they are.
Honestly, it was kind of forgivable in Windows 3.1. Windows 95 should have fixed it. But here we are... in 2025... and it STILL does that.