Windows 11's new pre-loaded File Explorer is reportedly still slower than Windows 10

Summary

• Preloading makes Windows 11 File Explorer open faster than before, at ~30MB extra RAM.
• Despite gains, Windows 11's preloaded Explorer still lags Windows 10's Explorer in open/close speed.
• That performance gap could slow Windows 11 adoption and keep users on Windows 10.

Microsoft knows that Windows 11's File Explorer is a little on the slow side. That's why it announced it would introduce a new process that would preload File Explorer; that way, it would be ready to open the moment you ask for it. And while I initially had my doubts that it would do much of anything, some testing has seemingly proven that it actually does speed things up when compared to the non-preloaded version.

However, one operating system still has it beat. And, unfortunately, that operating system is Windows 10.

Windows 11's new preloaded File Explorer is still slower than Windows 10's

The news comes to us via Windows Latest, which did some testing with the new preloaded File Explorer. They pitted it against Windows 11's older, non-preloaded File Explorer, and while the new one took up 30MB more RAM (which, let's be fair here, won't make too much of an impact), it opens marginally quicker when no other apps are open, and noticeably quicker when the RAM is chock full of apps. So, in terms of Windows 11's scope, the new one wins.

However, Windows Latest then did a test where it compared the sped-up Windows 11 File Explorer to Windows 10's. It's worth noting that Windows 10 did not get the preload update, so it was still running on the regular version of File Explorer. And despite that, Windows 10's version still opened and closed faster than Windows 11's pre-loaded one.

So, why should we care? Well, Microsoft has a problem on its hands right now. Its big Windows 11 push, including the announcement that it'll be making it an agentic operating system, did not go down well. Paired with the COO of Dell's claim that 500 million Windows PCs had compatible hardware with Windows 11, but their owners chose not to upgrade, and Microsoft is going to really struggle with getting people to make the jump to its newer operating system. Having a system that feels slower and less responsive than its predecessor doesn't do Windows 11 any favors, and it's bound to keep Windows 10's user base firmly planted on their PCs for another year or so.

Can Microsoft finally make Windows 11's File Explorer as responsive as Windows 10's, or perhaps even faster? It's really hard to tell. The preloading update was definitely a step in the right direction, and I'm glad that it, at the very least, makes it quicker than the normal File Explorer. But it seems it may need to do a little more work if it hopes to win over the hardened Windows 10 users, if they ever can.

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