Summary
- Recent Windows 11 update may have made File Explorer much faster.
- An unnoticeable delay when opening Explorer fixed, persisted for over 10 years.
- Mixed reviews on speed improvement post-update, possible under-the-hood improvements.
Sometimes, it takes Microsoft a little while to get around to fixing that one bug that has annoyed you for years now. It even has a habit of re-adding bugs that went away 20 years ago with a new Windows 11 update. If you’ve been using Windows for a while, you may recall that File Explorer became a little sluggish around the Windows 8.1 era and has remained that way ever since.
Well, if a recent post on Reddit is to be believed, Microsoft may have finally fixed that issue. Reports are coming in that a hidden benefit of a Windows 11 update makes File Explorer a lot faster than before, and the evidence looks promising.
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Microsoft may have made File Explorer a lot snappier on Windows 11
In a post on the Windows 11 subreddit, user guijahu showcased evidence of Microsoft working on improving File Explorer’s performance. They noticed the change after updating their computer to the Windows 11 KB5055627 build and uploaded a video showing off the speed increase when opening File Explorer.
On the surface, it looks like a general fix. However, according to the original poster, it’s actually an issue that has been plaguing them for years now:
I’ve been using laptops with iGPU and dGPU since 2015, on Windows 8.1. I’ve come to realize that, for some reason, there was a ~1 second delay when opening Explorer comparing to computers with only iGPU or dGPU, and that has been EXACTLY the same since that time (it was a bug that affected at least W8.1, 10 and 11, not sure about 7).
[…]
Recently, I’ve updated my laptop to the latest KB5055627, which I know that has changed quite a bit of things. Today, I was deleting some files and noticed that there isn’t any delay anymore when opening Explorer (after having opened it at least 1 time after turning the PC on, which is to be expected), as the video shows.
People flocked to the thread to give their own thoughts on the matter. Some reported that, yes, File Explorer is a lot snappier now, while others didn’t feel any change. Others still lamented that, while File Explorer boots up a lot faster, it’s still not quite fast enough. Regardless, here’s hoping that Microsoft did tinker with something under the hood and that this isn’t just a strange coincidence.
