Microsoft promises to speed up context menus, folder navigation, file transfers, and search on Windows 11

If you've ever tried right-clicking a file or folder in File Explorer, or quickly navigate through a number of layers of folders, you've likely found that performance isn't very good. File Explorer feels slow, sometimes taking seconds for that right-click menu to appear once you click on it.

Well, good news. Microsoft is aware of these problems and has promised that it's working to address them this year as part of its larger effort fix quality issues across Windows.

"File Explorer is one of the most used surfaces in Windows," says Microsoft's EVP of Windows & Devices, Pavan Davuluri. "Our first round of improvements will focus on a quicker launch experience, reduced flicker, smoother navigation and more reliable performance for everyday file tasks."

As part of this effort, the company has confirmed that it's working to address performance of the context menu in File Explorer and across the system in general. It's also moving to make navigating through folder trees and searching for files within File Explorer faster and more reliable, too.

Here's the rundown of File Explorer improvements that are now in the works:

• Substantially lower latency for search, navigation and context menus
• Copying and moving large files will be faster and more reliable
• Faster launch and responsiveness for common file tasks

Microsoft has already been testing some performance improvements for File Explorer with Windows Insiders over the last few months, including the ability to pre-load File Explorer in the background so that it launches instantly when you click the icon.

Now, the company is adding further improvements that will make actually using File Explorer feel snappy and easy to use. It's never made sense to me why clicking through multiple folder trees always takes a second to load the contents within a folder. It should just open instantly, and it sounds like it will soon.

Having a more responsive right-click menu will also be a big improvement. I almost always have to wait two beats between hitting right-click and seeing the right-click menu in File Explorer, even on high-end systems. This gets worse depending on the kind of file you're right clicking and how many apps you have installed that appear within that menu.

In addition to improving performance and functionality of the File Explorer, Microsoft has also confirmed that it's working to address the inconsistent UI issues that have plagued File Explorer for years too. The company says it's working to reduce UI flickering when in dark mode, and is also going to make dark mode even more consistent across the legacy interfaces within File Explorer.

💬 What do you think about these File Explorer improvements?

With Microsoft focusing hard on improving quality across Windows 11 this year, I want to know what you think about these File Explorer improvements specifically. Is this what File Explorer needs, or should Microsoft be striving to rebuild File Explorer from the ground up with a modern codebase instead of optimizing this legacy experience. Let us know in the comments.