Why is Windows file explorer so slow?
Why is Windows file explorer so slow?
You're experiencing slow thumbnail loading in your file explorer, especially with large folders. It sounds like the issue might be related to how your system handles caching or file indexing. Try optimizing your cache settings or checking for disk space constraints. If you're using Total Commander, its performance could be better due to its design, but it doesn't integrate smoothly with Windows Explorer. Consider switching to a more responsive alternative that offers similar features without the lag.
Vibecoding wasn't around 15 years ago, and progress has been limited for quite some time... Yet in 25H2 it's made significant improvements. My frustration with Explorer's slowness has almost disappeared completely.
Well my desktop is on win 10! >.< But I agree it's been slow on and off, I do remember times it was actually kinda usable... It went all down the drain for me when they "removed" cortana... I always had my most used stuff there, 1 click away ~. That's also roughly when this thumbnail issue started, never really had issues with this (and I do remember reading they made the cache smaller, as said) I just thought maybe there's a way to set it to 50GB or so instead of 2 - which would hopefully, but not guaranteed, fix the situation. I guess I'll try getting used to total commander then, cause this constant waiting to see my latest videos is becoming rather insufferable ( I make a lot of short gameplay clips and gifs and it's just dumb when the "loading" of said clips takes longer than actually making them lol - I use capcut btw, yeah it's scummy, but it's also *fast*)
Sure, just to clarify, handling around 500 photos works fine—still about 3 seconds. But with 500 videos (from a few MB up to 5GB), it slows down significantly and becomes quite demanding. The system handles it smoothly for a second, but longer files require more time and processing power.
It was designed for Windows 3.0 but they continue to use it now.