Forum Discussion
Anyone else getting weird stuttering in Explorer on Windows 11?
File Explorer has been feeling super sluggish lately—opening folders takes a second, right-click takes forever to pop up, and scrolling through files is choppy. It's not constant, but it happens often enough to be annoying.
Tried restarting Explorer, clearing File Explorer history, even disabled some of the new tabs stuff. Still happens.
Running an SSD, plenty of RAM, no weird background processes. Is this just a Windows 11 thing now or is there actually a fix?
1 Reply
Intermittent delay across opening folders, scrolling, and right-clicking is more often caused by a shell extension, sync provider, thumbnail handler, or damaged Windows component than by SSD speed or RAM. Start by comparing a simple local folder with a OneDrive or network folder, and temporarily turn off the Preview pane; that separates content-related delays from Explorer-wide delays. Install current Windows updates and restart. Next perform a clean boot; if Explorer becomes smooth, re-enable non-Microsoft services and startup items in groups until the conflict returns. If right-click is the slowest action, check software that added context-menu commands. Also run a Windows Security scan, then run DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth followed by sfc /scannow. Test a new local user profile before considering a reset. If the clean profile and clean boot both stutter, capture the exact Windows build, affected paths, and a Feedback Hub recording so Microsoft receives performance traces
