Windows 11 bug ironically boosts File Explorer speed, making things load instantly

A photo of Windows 11s File Explorer with the Folder Options window

The File Explorer in Windows 11 seemingly has its flaws. It might load slowly when you open files and sometimes, Explorer’s search bar may take too long to load your search results. In fact, in-depth tests have shown that Windows 10 is actually snappier than Windows 11. Some of the members of Neowin's own forum have echoed similar sentiments. But it seems a bug in the operating system is giving File Explorer an unexpected speed boost.

Twitter user Vivy found a bug that can significantly speed up Windows File Explorer. They posted that switching File Explorer to full-screen mode (by pressing F11) and then exiting full-screen mode (by pressing F11 again) results in almost instant loading of folder contents and generation of thumbnail previews for files. The search function within File Explorer also becomes more responsive and snappier.

Did you know you can speedup explorer by use of bugs?

Turns out switching in and out of full screen mode (F11) noticeably improves load times!

Wish this was the performance we get out of box.

(Yes navbar breaks.. tho navbar shouldn't cause such a huge snappiness regression..) pic.twitter.com/GObybf1C8q
— Vivy (@VivyVCCS) September 3, 2023

Users on the r/Windows 11 subreddit are reporting that a bug in File Explorer actually improves the loading time. One Redditor said:

I tested it on a music folder with 1800+ subfolders, and 25,000+ files: Everything opens instantly, awesome. This is the performance that we had in the Explorer of Windows 7.

Another wrote:

I just tried it on an i7-7700HQ on 22H2... And it works. I can't believe it. It's so snappy suddenly. Now, I don't know if I should be happy or jaded by this.

This bug is apparently affecting all versions of Windows 11, from the Canary Insider builds to all the way back to the original release (22000, 21H2).

Although the bug makes File Explorer faster, it would be better if we could have this kind of performance by default. Windows 11 was supposed to have better overall performance than previous releases, but that doesn't seem to be the case.