When File Explorer crashes, it doesn't restart

I am on a brand new PC running Windows 11 and so far it seems to be working well with one irritating exception. If windows File Explorer crashes or is told to restart through the task manager, it just, doesn't... instead the whole desktop goes blank white and there is no way to open any new programs from taskbar, so I just have to restart the computer.


Why this is a problem: I am trying to transfer some files from my old computer's hard drives, the usb connector I have for that seems to be really slow, so File Explorer often freezes up or crashes while I'm trying to get to these folders. I can be patient if the speed of transferring data is slow but in my previous experience on windows 10, if File explorer crashes it's meant to just immediately restart itself right?

Boot your computer into Safe Mode and perform clean boot on Windows 11 to help you troubleshoot and determine conflicts in your setup.