Tested: Windows 11’s ‘faster’ File Explorer (preloaded) is still slower than Windows 10. On a 4GB RAM test machine, File Explorer used ~32.4MB of RAM without preloading. After turning on preloading, Windows quietly adds ~35MB more. So Explorer now sits at ~67.4MB in memory before you even open it.... 35MB isn’t a big deal in 2025. Your browser eats that for breakfast. That's not the point of my testing. Why is the preloaded File Explorer still slower than Windows 10? I made a video to compare the two versions.show more

In a light-load test, we had to slow the recording to 0.25x to clearly see the benefit. The preloaded Explorer opens, closes, and reopens in less time than the non-preloaded one takes to close. So yes, it is quicker. But File Explorer on Windows 10 is still much faster, and it's not being preloaded because it does not need additional time to load the UI. Watch how File Explorer (preloaded) on Windows 11 loads versus Windows 10 (no preload) in this slow-motion video.

So is preloading “worth” 35MB? For launch speed alone: yes. But is Windows 11’s File Explorer now “fixed”? Not even close. The app still feels sluggish once it’s open, and that’s where people spend most of their time. Let's compare the context menu on Windows 11 and Windows 10. We've a clear winner, and this is honestly depressing in this slow-motion video. On Windows 11, we've: - Ask Copilot - Edit with Clipchamp - Edit in Notepad - Edit with Paint - Photos (which is already your default on double-click) These are exactly the bits that take their sweet time to appear.

And it's clearly not Windows 11's fault... look at the comparison below. Third-party app File Pilot, made by @vkrajacic, loads instantly, while File Explorer (preloaded) takes time. File Pilot is equally modern and better (actually), but it still loads faster. Why? This video is also in slow motion.

Microsoft’s preload trick works for launch speed.... but it just doesn’t fix the deeper performance problems users have been shouting about since Windows 11 shipped. Watch the before-preload and after-preload comparison of File Explorer on Windows 11. It's faster. Video in slow motion.

Some of you asked: What happens when you disable system-wide animations, transparency effects, and set File Explorer's default location to a folder or "This PC"? Result: It's way faster now with preloading enabled. However, it is still a bit slower than Windows 10.

MS can't optimize their own system... time for Linux

It keeps getting worse.

How do they even manage to slow everything that much that it's still slower than Explorer in Windows 7 even though we have better CPUs? Why is every new OS using so much more performance basically for nothing?

This useless animations take time as well. Why do you need such long animations in the OS?

"Working on it..." The simple fact that they've added this message shows that they knew it was a big 💩💩💩 with no instant loading anymore.

and linuxmint XFCE?

meanwhile on my Win11 24H2 without preloading, why is it so much snappier?

Seems the animation is causing a delay, and possibly also because the default homepage, or whatever it is called, adds a delay. Set File Explorer to load This PC as the starting folder. Check how it performs. I never liked the default page, always used This PC even on Win 10.

Is it at least faster than Windows 95 File Explorer?

WTF DOES IT DO THAT IT REQUIRES 67 MB OF RAM TO OPERATE??? What's next? Every single Windows operation taking that much? 64GB RAM as a minimum requirement?

Just saying but @raycast comes with a custom indexer that scans your files in real time and delivers instant results.

My theory is that W11 Explorer is running through some C# virtualization (and/or wrapping) layers in order to add functionalities and maintaining compatibility with Win32 API and the whole set of functionalities. File Pilot is a native application made in C, probably (...)

Now compare it to ANY third party alternative 1. Double Commander 2. Total Commander 3. FreeCommander 4. Q-Dir 5. One Commander 6. XYplorer 7. Directory Opus 8. Explorer++ 9. Multi Commander 10. Files

There are 4 states it goes through. Total disgust. File explorer is garbage. File pilot is system jank. Yes it’s faster but you’ll end up having to open file explorer anyway even with pilot set to default. Every other file explorer is fast yet Microsoft somehow fucks it up.

Windows 11 tries to work out what TYPE of content is in folders. Turn it off and et vollia. "regedit". Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\Local Settings\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Shell\Bags\All Folders\Shell. Right-click the "Shell" folder, select New, and

Also compare with windows 7 explorer on 15yo hardware against win10 explorer on relatively modern, win10 era hardware. Win7 on ssd will win for sure. Enshitification is just insane

It's the command bar, install explorer patcher and switch back to the Win10 ribbon or the Win7 command bar and it'll open instantly again. It's *literally* the Windows 11 slop code causing it.

Recall is like “Whoa there buddy, I need to get a few screenshots of this and upload them first. My buddy Copilot is also going to need a quick look at what you’re doing before we can move forward on this.”

that's insanity. windows users who are not using @raycast are ngmi haha bypass file explorer by creating quicklinks to your most used folders!

They “preloaded” it and yet it STILL has the huge gray rectangle sitting at the top. When I installed 11 for the first time I thought something was wrong with my graphics drivers. Turns out they just shipped that and don’t care????

Windows 11 preloading File Explorer and still being slower than Win10 is Microsoft speedrunning "we added bloat and called it optimization.

35 isnt a lot in isolation. But its another straw on a haystack thats already growing because every other apps preloading something. Its a lazy fix to a problem that would be better served by a lighter weight application.

In our golden windows XP days The program which runs on background without any purpose is considered as behaviour of virus It's a wonder how microsoft managed to make entire OS into virus now

You don’t know how much it bothers me that when right clicking on the modern menu not all options from external programs show up when the menu shows and you need to wait a second or two for things to show and you end up miss clicking some random shit

Lots are saying it's to do with animations, even when you disable animations in W11 it's still slower

Don't know why Windows is such a shitty os, I mean almost 80% of world uses windows and they have such great engineers and the funding why can't they make a decent os

Yea. After 35 years of Windows, I switched to MacOS. It's so much better...

In 2025, with much faster CPUs, "click and wait it to show" is simply unbearable and unacceptable for such an important system component. This is shame for those who are involved in this *upgrade*.

I think Microsoft needs to fire these engineers and then rehire with capable ones Sorry for the words but it is what it is

It adds up at windows 11. Every interaction has a delay compared to Wind 10, it is just ridiculous.