Explore at Your Own Pace: How to Fix a Slow File Manager on Windows 11

There are some things in life that we take for granted and only really appreciate when we lose them, such as our hair, our teeth, and our ability to remember the name of that guy who was in that show we watched a couple of years ago. You know the one? He was in that other thing with that other guy from that show.

The same is true of our ability to access our files and folders on our computers. We take it for granted that all we need to do is open the file manager, click on a file, and it will pop open like magic. It’s only when things stop working properly that you really appreciate what you’ve got. For example, when File Explorer starts being really slow, what was once a simple task can soon become a chore.

The good news is that if File Explorer has slowed to a crawl, you can try some things to solve the problem. Here’s how to fix a slow file manager on Windows 11.

Slow File Manager on Windows 11? Try Using File Explorer in Full Screen

Something worth trying before you get into the more complicated methods of fixing a slow file manager in Windows 11 is using File Explorer in full-screen mode. Using full-screen mode rather than expanding the window to fit the screen removes the navigation bar at the top of the File Explorer window, which may help to speed it up a little.

Open File Explorer. Press F11 to turn the window on to full-screen mode. The navigation bar will now be missing. Try using File Explorer again to see if it works faster. To exit full-screen mode, press F11 again.

Restart File Explorer

If the method above doesn’t work, you can try restarting File Explorer. This may be enough to reset whatever was causing File Explorer to work slowly and get things back working as expected again.

Right-click the Start button. Select Task Manager.

Right-click Windows Explorer under Apps. Click Restart.

Once Windows Explorer has restarted, try your mouse again.

Close Apps and Processes You’re Not Using

If your file manager is running slowly on Windows 11, it may be due to other apps and processes hogging all the resources. You can try closing unnecessary apps and processes to see if this speeds things up. Killing apps through the Task Manager should ensure that they’re not sneakily running in the background, but take care not to close anything if you’re not sure what it does, as it may be something that needs to keep running.

Right-click the Start button. Select Task Manager.

Right-click an app or process that you want to close. Select End Task.

Repeat for any other apps or processes you want to close. Once you’ve closed everything you want to, try File Explorer again to see if it’s speeded up.

Turn Off Quick Access and Clear History

File Explorer has several features designed to make it easier to find the files and folders you use most often or most recently. However, these features intended to make using File Explorer faster may potentially cause your file manager to run more slowly. You can try turning off the Quick Access feature, which gives shortcuts to your most recent and most frequently used files and folders, to see if this speeds things up. You can also clear the File Explorer history to see if that helps, too.

Open File Explorer and click the Three Dots icon in the menu bar.

Select Options.

In the General tab, uncheck Show Recently Used Files and Show Frequently Used Folders.

Click the Clear button next to Clear File Explorer History.

Click Apply to apply the changes. Try using File Explorer again to see if it’s any faster.

Use the Search and Indexing Troubleshooter to Fix Slow File Manager on Windows 11

Windows 11 also has a built-in troubleshooter that can help with problems with file indexing and searching, which may be what is slowing down File Explorer. You can try running the Search and Indexing troubleshooter to see if this fixes your problems with your file manager being slow on Windows 11.

Type Control Panel in the search field in the taskbar.

Select Control Panel from the results.

Click the View By drop-down and select Small Icons.

Select Indexing Options.

At the bottom of the window, click Troubleshoot Search and Indexing.

Select Search or Indexing is Slow as the problem that you’re noticing and click Next.

Follow the on-screen instructions to run the troubleshooter.

Update the OS to Fix Slow File Manager on Windows 11

Another potential cause of the file manager running slowly in Windows 11 is that the current version of Windows you’re running is buggy. Some versions of Windows 11 have had memory leak issues that caused things to run slowly, including File Explorer. Updating to the latest version of Windows 11 may fix these problems and get your file manager back running at normal speed.

Right-click the Start button. Click Settings.

Select Windows Update in the left-hand menu.

Click Check For Updates.

If any updates are found, install them and then restart your computer. Once the updates are complete, try using File Explorer again to see if it’s running any faster.

Fixing File Explorer When It’s Slow

Your file manager is one of the most essential parts of using your computer; if you can’t access your files and folders easily, things can get pretty frustrating. If your File Explorer runs slowly, a simple task like opening a file can quickly become a nightmare. Getting things back up to speed can save you from tearing your hair out.

If you’ve been wondering how to fix a slow file manager on Windows 11, hopefully, one of the fixes above has helped. If you do find any other useful ways to get File Explorer back up to speed in Windows 11, please let us know in the comments.

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