Windows 11 File Explorer freezes when renaming files

I've noticed this problem for years in Win 10, still present in Win 11, that renaming or moving PDF files would cause the application to freeze for 10-30 seconds. I had noticed this mainly in Explorer and thought it was due to a Shell plug-in. I have tried uninstalling Adobe Acrobat reader (I only use reader) to no avail. I just noticed the same issue using a custom bulk-rename .NET application I wrote, invoked through PowerShell. Thus, plugins aren't in play; this gave me a new idea. I Stopped and Disabled the Windows Search service, and the problem went away immediately! (I was easily reproducing the issue using bulk rename before, and no repro after stopping the service.)

The same effect can be achieved by unchecking "Allow this file to have contents indexed in addition to file properties" (in Properties -> General -> Advanced) on the offending file(s). Note: Don't be fooled if this is unchecked on the containing folder; it can be unchecked there but still checked on the file. This might be a solution if you want to use content search but don't need it on certain files. However, the property seems to be set automatically when you extract from archive or download a file, even if done into a folder with the property unset, so this approach may entail an ongoing battle.

I'm going to leave the Windows Search service disabled. Since that seems to be the culprit, it makes sense that it could affect more file types than just PDFs.