Forum Discussion
Windows 11 File Explorer freezes when renaming files
Hi, my file explorer lags (or freezes for few seconds) every time i rename files and happened in any folder or files in any drive. Specifically, it happens after i'm finished renaming a file or folder and pressing enter/tab/clicking anywhere, then it freezes. When i click again anywhere on the explorer it says not responding and the hourglass cursor appears for a good 5-10 seconds, then it goes back to normal. This happens from the very beginning i updated from windows 10 to windows 11 dev, now it's updated to insider preview and it still happens.
Things i tried, but no effect:
1. Closing onedrive
2. Closing all apps
Things i tried and solved the problem:
reverting back to windows 10 
But i like windows 11, so really appreciate if someone can solve this.
Thank you in advance.
My PC:
AMD Ryzen 9 3900x
32GB RAM DDR4
Samsung SSD NVMe 512GB
Radeon RX 5700
42 Replies
My installation of Windows 11 straight up tells me it is moving files when I rename a folder.
Why?
This is a dealbreaker for me. Back to Windows 10.That is most strange!
Since moving back to Windows 10, I have had zero problems with: renaming files, moving files to other folders, copying files to other folders, DX 12 gaming,. In addition, I have only had one instance of Windows Explorer freezing and crashing, but I was doing multiple things at once and I was likely the reason it went sideways. The only thing that Windows 10 does that I am not liking is it identifies one of my Western Digital 2TB HDD as a SSD, but that could be a BIOS issue. Windows 11 also saw that drive as a SSD. The drive is not a hybrid, so not sure what it happens, but web searches in the search engine of one's choice shows many others having similar issues and solutions are iffy; mileage may vary.
Since rolling back, I have never liked a Microsoft operating system better, especially knowing what we'll be stuck with after Win 10 is no longer supported.
- I found another reason for this behavior at least in my case. As in Win 10, here in Win 11 I also immediately installed "OpenShell" ("classic-shell" reborn) that brings in a "normal" and functional start menu. (I am yet to see a person who likes the "improved" start menu and taskbar.) Anyway, as soos as I uninstalled it, the problem was gone completely. It is almost like MS does not want people use this app that functioned perfectly ok in win10.
SouthPoleCat How do you uninstall 'Open Shell'? I can't find it to do that to try to stop Windows Explorer freezing for some time when moving/renaming files?
- It seems that I found a simple solution, at least to my problem when WE would pause for a few seconds when changing folders. Go to folders/options/view and UNCHECK "Launch folder in a separate process". Restart. That's it!
SouthPoleCat Yes, Explorer is broken. Totally. I re-installed Windows 11 to try it again, after my VM version started to become more stable after the last update and I found an optical drive work around in File Explorer. So, I thought it'd work better than earlier iterations. Nope. It's worse.
I updated to the latest update of 11 today, and now File Explorer is the most unstable it has ever been. I have rebooted 4x and I still get (Not Responding) and a white box where File Explorer should be. Each time, I'd try to start Task Manager and get the Task Manger is (Not Responding) and then the popup for Task Manager says, "The application is not responding. The Program may respond again if you wait. Do you want to end this process?" That's it. I'm done. I'm out.
- I am having similar issues on the pre-installed release of W11. This is definitely Windows Explorer issue. In addition to WE, I also use "free commander" and "multi commander" (just Google 'em) which remind me of "Norton Commander" from many many years ago. So, these two do NOT have any problem browsing and renaming files and directories. Give it a try.
balbul I think I might have dug a bit more in the problem, I explain:
I have both, Intel and AMD pcs with win11 but the freezing issue just happens with AMD and it only occurs when I rename directories. The important thing here is that it is not a visual problem because I tried to rename the folders via cmd and the interface also freezes out.
As it seems the AMD processors are having issues with the memory in win11. Let's hope it gets fixed in the next update.
- Ah! I have an AMD rig and yep, this is happening to me, as well. I am trying to rename a bunch of media files for Plex Media Server and, well, I guess I'll have to spin up a Windows 10 Virtual Machine. I really do not like the way File Explorer has been stripped down in Windows 11. Hell, File Manager in Win 3.11 was better than this mess. The whole ribbon is naked, it seems, and I had to download a patch just to regain the "move to folder" and "copy to folder" function. Then they took away having a clock on the lower right corner of each monitor, and I happen to play my full windows game on the far right window, so my clock is gone. (Yeah, first-world problem, I know). However, today, I discovered the bug with renaming these incorrectly named files, so I am very tempted to roll back to Windows 10 and be done with it. I tried an automated mass re-namer, but each file needs a human eye on it for certain decisions that I cannot automate. Other than the prestige of having the latest OS, I don't see a big enough benefit of having Windows 11, at this time. I'll go back to my original set-up of Win 10 with a Win 11 VM.
MNJONES1907 I now have the latest developer build and it seems like the problem has been solved. I also think that we should have the time in the second screen. Have you rolled back to w10? I think I will because some games running under dx12 just crush after a while.
- Same here!!!
- Same here, file explorer is extremely sluggish/slow on my Surface Pro 7 7i with 16GB RAM & 1TB, which should be powerful hardware & almost brand new. Was excellent i W10, also on my old Surface Pro i5.
