Solution 1: Disabling Quick Access
Windows 10 introduced a Quick Access view in the file explorer. Whenever you open the file explorer, you will see a Quick Access item in your navigation pane (present at the left side). This contains all the recent files and folders accessed by you. Users reported that disabling the Quick Access solved their problem for them. Quick Access is more like “Favorites” present at the earlier versions of Windows. This is very handy for people who open the same documents present at different directories again and again. But if you are experiencing a lot of lag or your file explorer gets stuck in be, when again and again, we can try disabling it completely and check if our problem got better in any way. Firstly, we need to make the File Explorer open to “This PC” instead of Quick Access whenever you open it. Whenever you open the file explorer, you will be redirected to the Quick Access view. If we going to disable the Quick Access from your system completely, we need to disable this feature too. The “This PC” is more of a traditional view of “My Computer” present in earlier versions of Windows. It displays all your drives along with the favorite folders (Images, Videos, and Pictures etc.).
This will be by default set to Quick Access. Click it and change it to This PC.
In the second step, we have to stop showing favorites or recent folders in the Quick Access. The Quick Access list takes the place of the old Favorites list in the previous operating systems. It works in the same way but lets you view folders which you recently opened. We need to turn it off.
Now Quick Access will only display Favorite folders similar to the older versions of the operating system. Restart your system and check if your file explorer got any better.
Solution 2: Checking Event Log for errors with File Explorer
We can check the Event Log for errors which were registered with the File Explorer. The Event Log contains all errors that an application undergoes and can be used to pinpoint the problem which is causing the crash/stuck.
After tracking the exe file down, we found Daemon tools to be the culprit. It was linked with File Explorer and was causing the problems. Uninstall the application which is giving the problem and restart your computer.
Solution 3: Changing “Optimize this folder for”
If you are experiencing problems on a specific folder, we can try optimizing it for the items contained in the folder. When we optimize a folder for a specific file format, it automatically prioritizes in opening/copying etc that file format.
A restart might be necessary for the changes to take place. Restart your computer and check if the lagging got fixed. https://www.tenforums.com/general-support/7009-file-explorer-extremely-slow-unstable-2.html
Solution 4: Enabling Cortana (if it is disabled)
Many users reported that enabling Cortana solved their problem. Cortana is preinstalled in the Windows operating system and is integrated with your system completely. We can try enabling it and checking if our problem gets fixed.
Solution 5: Turn off indexing
An indexed file is a computer file with an index that allows easy random access to any record given its key. The key is made in such a way that it uniquely identifies the record. Windows has a feature to index folders and files for faster access. By default, most of the major folders are selected and Windows is also constantly updating the indexing in the background. This causes a lot of CPU usage and keeps your file explorer busy. Hence the case with the slow performance. We can try turning off indexing and checking if it helps our cause. There are two options for you to disable indexing. We can selectively disable indexing for some specific folders or you can completely disable indexing. We can go with disabling selective indexing if you don’t want to completely disable the process due to any reason.
If you want to completely disable indexing, you can stop it from the list of services. Through this, the entire indexing process will be stopped.
You can also access these tools by pressing Windows + R to launch the Run application. Type control panel in the dialogue box and hit enter. Once in the control panel click on Administrative Tools to open it. It will be the first option in the panel.
Solution 6: Disabling OneDrive
OneDrive is a file-hosting service run by Microsoft. It allows users to store files/folders and personal data like Windows settings too. Files can be synced automatically on your PC and can be accessed anywhere with an internet connection. There are also OneDrive clients available in android and iOS platforms for increased ease of access for the users. It comes preinstalled in the new Windows and your account is automatically activated and synced in the computer. Although OneDrive is an excellent tool if you work with a lot of documents and need the portability to access them anywhere with an internet connection. However, many users reported that OneDrive was causing a delay in their file explorer and disabling it helped the slow speed go away. Like we mentioned before, OneDrive is preinstalled in every latest Windows. It cannot be uninstalled in every device, but we can try disabling it and check if it helps our cause.
If you don’t find OneDrive listed in your programs list, we can try disabling it.
Now restart your computer and check if the file explorer got fixed. Note: If your file explorer doesn’t get fixed even after following all these methods, it’s likely that you either haven’t updated to the latest windows or your windows isn’t installed properly.
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