Extremely slow Windows Explorer. Please help.

TheOne21 · 05 Oct 2015

Hi everyone.
My Windows 10 laptop, which previously had Windows 7 (I upgraded through Windows Update) is now having problems with the file explorer.It all started last night, when I was listening to some music with the windows media player, then it froze, a windows popped up asking me if I wanted to end the process and I said yes. From there, it all went downhill. My File Explorer is now EXTREMELY slow, I open a folder and it takes 1 or 2 minute for a new window to even open. Then it takes like 2 more minutes for the new window to even show things. When it does load i can't even scroll up or down or open another subfolder because it freezes and shows "Not responding" at least 3 time before even doing something. I have no Idea how to fix this, which is why I'm here today starting this thread.
At first I thought it was a performance Issue, but Steam, Task Manager and even games work perfectly fine. Maybe it's worth to mention that my task manager sometimes displays as if my disk was being completely 100% used, but then it goes back to 98%, then back to 100% again, and after a while it calms down and displays the actual percentage. My HDD is more than half free. Also, when I first installed Windows 10 I had a BSOD Issue. Luckily, kemical from the Windows Forums managed to help me and solve my issue through dump files provided by the W7F Diagnostic Tool. I am trying to back up my most important files to my external hard disk right now in case I have to reset/format my PC, but since the File Explorer is extremely slow, the estimated copy time is more than a day. It would be very nice if an alternate solution for my problem could be found. I am very scared of resets and would not like to do it at all.
Many thanks in advance mates.
EDIT: Google Chrome won't open and using the Windows 10 search tool at the bottom left makes File Explorer crash sometimes.

LittleJay · 05 Oct 2015

Repair Install Windows 10 with an In-place Upgrade - Windows 10 Forums

When I first upgraded from W7 to W10 I had problems with Component Store corruption and did a repair install with an in place upgrade to fix it. With this method I didn't lose any data or programs/apps previously installed. The only thing I had to do afterward was rerun Windows Update. You can check out the steps in the link I posted above.

TheOne21 · 06 Oct 2015

My friend told me that the Windows 10 "Reset This PC" option in the recovery settings would do the trick as well. And I could chose to keep my files. Will this work? I'll consider this repair as a second option as well.

andrekish · 13 Nov 2015

Hello - there's solution posted here - but cannot say if it works totally yet though but it has helped me just now. Hope it helps you too. Save any work open first, before you do this.

Taken from site at this board - Solved File explorer slow with loading thumnails and files - Windows 10 Forums

Step by step guide:
1. Hold Win+r to open run
2. Type msconfig and hit ok or enter
3. Click Services
4. Navigate to Windows search (you can sort the list in descending alphabetical order)
5. Uncheck tickbox
6. Click apply then ok
7. Select to restart now

Hope this works for you.

-- Your system will need a restart when it reconfigures itself so save any work first. I tried this myself and it ran slow first time while it indexed slow directories - then after I closed file explorer and reloaded it it ran fast on slow directories. I hope it helps you. Best of luck and best wishes.

topgundcp · 13 Nov 2015

You can try this:
Right Click on Desktop take long time to show up - Windows 10 Forums

andrekish · 13 Nov 2015

Thanks - my file manager is still slow - I've got a hundred or so files in downloads folder and it takes at least a minute to load and display any files.

I'm new here so hope this questions isn't out of place, but may I ask if you know what causes this? - the bar at the top goes green very slowly and I'm not any kind of expert at any of it.

Thanks so much if you can help in ANY way - Andre

Looey · 13 Nov 2015

[QUOTE=andrekish;463352]Thanks - my file manager is still slow - I've got a hundred or so files in downloads folder and it takes at least a minute to load and display any files.

I'm new here so hope this questions isn't out of place, but may I ask if you know what causes this? - the bar at the top goes green very slowly and I'm not any kind of expert at any of it.

Thanks so much if you can help in ANY way - Andre[/QU

At the top of file explorer click on "View", "Options" and then "Change folder and search options". Folder options will pop up. Try unchecking the two boxes under privacy. It might speed opening up file explorer if you are having a problem with a file that is listed under quick access.