Hot Take New, redesigned File Explorer takes 15 seconds to load on compatible devices

[Ink]

Windows 11 version 23H2 will introduce a redesigned File Explorer with the Gallery feature, improved tab management, modernized UI elements, enhanced OneDrive integration and more.

The update is already available for testing in the Beta Channel, meaning the release is getting nigh. However, there is one big problem with the redesigned File Explorer: performance.

To put it mildly, Windows 11's upcoming File Explorer is... not fast. In fact, users may experience severe performance downgrades even when running the update on supported hardware.

Gustave Monce has shown the struggle of using the new File Explorer on the Surface Go 2 (64GB eMMC, 4GB of RAM, Pentium Gold Y series CPU), Microsoft's cheapest Windows 11-compatible tablet takes 15 seconds to load.

Florian (@flobo09 on Twitter), a Windows Insider MVP, claims their desktop PC with an Intel Core i5-7600K and 16GB of RAM takes whopping 21 seconds to launch File Explorer.

Story via The upcoming File Explorer redesign could be a reason not to upgrade to Windows 11 23H2

 

[plat]

Huh? I see several configurations of hardware were tested and....I'm not seeing that here, not yet. The article neglected to state which precise version of Windows has the "unusable" File Explorer. I just updated this drive to v. 22631.2129 which is indeed 23H2. I'm assuming the article's author tested this on the last most recent version, which had the File Explorer opening just as fast then on here. In fact, this article motivated me to update to see if anything changed there.

The hardware here is decent enough but acc. to the article, in that case, it should have taken 5-7 sec. to load.

Spoiler

Windows 11 is slow-ish in other areas though. The updates on here take almost twice as long as the same set on my 10 drive.