File Explorer - takes forever to open

File Explorer has always opened immediately (for 20 odd years).
Suddenly it (Quick Access) takes so long that it's just not worth trying to use it (but of course one must).

Anyone have any ideas about how Explorer could be affected by a recent update or other event?
Or better still does anyone have a solution?

ps Control Panel also doesn't show content ... just empty frame

Hey, the next time this happens, can you try this combination of keys?

Control + Windows Key + Shift + B
(This shuts off & restarts your graphics card in a split second.)

Then try to continue using File Explorer.

Darn. I was hoping that key combo works.

One other thing to note is that whenever my Explorer starts responding very slowly is that I can Log Off, then Log back In and everything starts working normally again. (I do that to avoid doing the restart since it takes slightly more time to restart the computer).

pepanee said:

Darn. I was hoping that key combo works.

One other thing to note is that whenever my Explorer starts responding very slowly is that I can Log Off, then Log back In and everything starts working normally again. (I do that to avoid doing the restart since it takes slightly more time to restart the computer).

This comes in real handy to quickly restart Explorer:

Restart Explorer Context Menu - Add in Windows 10 | Windows 10 Tutorials

nithig said:

Used the graphics card restart combo of keys and indeed the desktop flickered but it did not resolve the issue.
The only way I know how to restore the Explorer etc is by a restart.

One thing comes to mind... If you have some network link in Quick access (pinned, or in recent folders section), Latest update broke some network connections. In that case Explorer would tkae some time to open..

- check that all of your network connections are online and accessible,
- or clear them from list.

You can check recent list from right click on Explorer icon in taskbar too.

f14tomcat:

I've manually ended the Explorer.exe task through the Task Manager and re-ran it from there (File > Run > Explorer.exe)
I've never had any luck doing it that way; the computer stays very unresponsive.

pepanee said:

f14tomcat:

I've manually ended the Explorer.exe task through the Task Manager and re-ran it from there (File > Run > Explorer.exe)
I've never had any luck doing it that way; the computer stays very unresponsive.

Worth a shot. Sounds you have an ornery Explorer. :)