Windows 10: File Explorer really sluggish and weird

About 4-5 months ago I started to notice after an update that file explorer started to act really weird it got sluggish and folders would not show the little preview thumbnails and file would just come up as white squares with no thumbnail or associated programs icon and the whole file explorer was just acting weird. It got to a point I just broke down and redid my computer back to the restart by restoring the whole system.

Then things were back to normal for awhile. File explorer was working great again no issues and then about 2 weeks ago I noticed I again started to get the same thing had an update and then slowly the sluggishness has again returned and folders and files are not showing up as they should be with thumbnails and such.

Problem I have is I am not sure what update it was exactly that started to cause these issues so have no idea what update to roll back and it's getting bad again. I hate to have to go back and redo my computer all over again is such a hassle reinstalling all my games and programs and such.

Is there any way to reset file explorer to factory without having to redo my whole computer again?

Thanks

:)

 

Weird behavior/ sluggish after handling large files

Yes, all copying completes and verifies using fastcopy, and even after I notice the sluggishness at some point after I've finished a copying operation, additional copying is still fine. Just interacting with files, like right-clicking, is slow.

I'll have to try copying with just Windows file explorer later this afternoon. I'll report back.

For an example, I rebooted my PC a while ago, and just finished copying 44GB of files (a folder with 25 2GB rar files inside). It finished, and so far my PC is normal - no sluggishness. But at some point if I keep copying more large folders, it will start acting up. It's really weird.

 

Weird behavior/ sluggish after handling large files

@rivre

What you're describing sounds symptomatic of the Explorer Working Set memory size growing and growing. You have 16GB of memory, so that shouldn't be an issue. But if the Paging File is too small, or for some strange reason missing (a no-no), or configured incorrectly, Explorer and Windows will have no way of managing that working set size. That could explain why a re-boot takes away the sluggishness, and it slowly creeps back when feeding Explorer large chunks of data.

Possibly restarting Explorer alone may produce the same temp cure. Try that to see.

Check your settings for Paging to see if something doesn't look right. These are shots from mine. I let the system manage the Pagfile.sys size.

 

File explorer icon from taskbar dissappears while working on it

Hi,

To assist you with your concern, we suggest you pin the File Explorer from the Start Menu by following these steps:

• Click the Start Menu.
• Right-click File Explorer.
• Choose Pin to taskbar.

If you need further assistance, feel free to reply to this post.