Hey folks,
I've been having a peculiar problem with my Windows 11 setup and I'm hoping someone might have some insight into it. Each time I log in and open File Explorer, I'm met with a long wait—about 15 to 20 seconds—before all my drives finally show up. Once they're visible, it's pretty quick to navigate if I keep browsing, but if I leave and come back, it's that annoying wait all over again!
This only started happening after I moved my SSD containing Windows 10 from my old Fujitsu laptop to a new Dell Vostro 15 3530 and then upgraded to Windows 11 24H2 on the Fujitsu.
On the Fujitsu, everything was instant, but now on the Vostro, there are a couple of other issues too, like the fan running super loud all the time, which I think might be unrelated but is still annoying.
I've done a lot to troubleshoot this:
- Updated BIOS and drivers.
- Checked DNS and network connectivity.
- Restarted explorer.exe.
- Cleared File Explorer cache.
- Disabled unnecessary services and startup apps.
- Ran sfc /scannow and DISM commands.
- Confirmed my SSD health is all good and rebuilt the index.
- Disabled Quick Access.
Everything else on the laptop is fast, like Chrome, Outlook, and Excel, and I can use Total Commander without any issues.
I'm really puzzled and would love to hear if anyone else has dealt with this kind of delay in File Explorer. Do you think moving the SSD caused some corruption in network settings, or is there a fix for this problem? Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated!
2 Answers
It might also be worth considering user profile issues. I’ve seen this cause slowdowns before, where certain profiles have hiccups but others don’t. If you can, try logging in with another domain user account on your laptop and mapping the same drives to see if that’s the issue.
In some cases, I’ve fixed it by tweaking UAC settings or reinstalling the network drivers, though it can vary quite a bit.
From what you’re describing, it sounds like the mapped drives could be the culprit. A quick way to check this is to try accessing those drives using their UNC paths (like using Start... Run). If it takes a while to respond, then there might be a problem with those paths. It's not uncommon that moving machines leads to old SMB settings still hanging around, which can cause authentication issues.
You may want to try disconnecting all mapped drives and see if that allows File Explorer to load faster. You can reconnect them one by one to identify the troublemaker.
That makes total sense! We have quite a few drives mapped through GPO and one external drive that depends on a VPN connection, which usually causes delays. I'll temporarily remove that VPN-mapped drive and see if that helps speed things up.
Yep, I’ve heard similar complaints—most slow loading issues come down to mapped drives. It’s kind of a common theme!
Great idea! I’ll test logging in with a different user profile to see if it is a profile-specific problem. That might narrow it down.