The latest Windows 11 build is all about File Explorer (including performance)
Microsoft published a new Windows 11 Insider build today that is focusing on improving File Explorer, the default file manager on Windows.
Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 23545 for the Dev Channel contains a small number of other changes. Microsoft continues to throw taskbar search experiments at users; this time, instead of testing an open-on-hover experiment, Microsoft is experimenting with tooltips and clicks on the gleam that will take users directly to Bing.
The second non-File Explorer change brings a quick renaming option for the PC for the Nearby sharing feature and the ability to see Microsoft Teams contacts to send them files directly using the share window of the Windows system.
File Explorer changes
The new Windows 11 development build addresses several crashes in explorer.exe, for instance one, that caused Explorer to crash on close and another that caused a crash when two File Explorer windows were opened too quickly. Microsoft fixed other crashes in the build that could occur when opening the new Gallery view in File Explorer, after new images were added or when navigating away from Home.
Probably the most important change from a user perspective is the attempt to improve the performance of the file manager.
Microsoft writes: "Made a few more fixes to help improve File Explorer launch performance, including fixing a leak which would impact performance over time".
It is too early to tell if the improvements will make a noticeable difference to users who experience slow opening or loading performance when using File Explorer.
Those who still suffer from performance issues when using File Explorer may try the double-tap on F11 trick to see if it resolves the issue temporarily and speeds up the loading of folders.
The remaining changes address issues with the displaying of themes in File Explorer, a stuck loading icon in tabs, the display of incorrect icons in tabs, and an issue that caused all desktop icons to show up as white generic icons.
Annoyance about the poor performance of File Explorer in Windows 11 seems to be on the rise; this may have something to do with the increase in features and functionality that Microsoft added to the file manager in recent time.
Hard data about the performance of File Explorer is not available. Microsoft has this data, but it has not published any.
Now You: do you use File Explorer?
