Opening File Explorer on my Windows 11 PCs is basically instant.
Keep in mind some of these are much older PCs hardware-wise.
That said, all of my PCs are running O&O ShutUp10++ (which is free), and have the Microsoft background peeking turned OFF as recommended by the green color in the ShutUP10++ program.
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In addition, I have the registry key MenuShowDelay in the Windows Registry set to 0 (default is 400).
You can find it using REGEDIT at
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop
Key value
MenuShowDelay, select change / modify key value from 400 (default) to
0.
Also, in advanced performance settings, I've turned off fade-ins, animations, and things that delay or animate transitions so that everything is "instant".
Right-click Windows start button, left-click SYSTEM, navigate to Advanced System Settings (left click), next left click "Advanced" tab, under PERFORMANCE, click SETTINGS, here are mine . . .
Perhaps these settings might help you as well.
I am typing this on my TV PC which is a Dell Precision T1700 (Xeon CPU) with only 8GB ram and a regular 3.5" Toshiba 1TB 7200RPM SATA HDD(nothing fancy on this one). File explorer was instant, and it IS connected to multiple network drives.
My belief is that with some configuration tweaks, your File Explorer will be MUCH faster or INSTANT.
Good luck!
