Microsoft’s File Explorer is getting a speed boost

According to The How-To Geek, Microsoft is testing significant performance improvements for File Explorer in Windows 11 through background preloading. The feature appears in the latest Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26220.7271 (KB5070307) released to developers. This follows Microsoft’s similar approach with the Photos app last year and Office apps in May 2025 through its Startup Boost initiative. Users can toggle the setting called “Enable window preloading for faster launch times” in File Explorer’s Folder Options under View. The change aims to particularly benefit less powerful machines by improving launch performance without visible changes to the user experience. Microsoft has requested feedback before considering a broader rollout to all users.

Finally, performance over AI

Here’s the thing – this feels refreshingly practical. While Microsoft has been shoving AI into every corner of Windows lately, this File Explorer improvement actually addresses something users complain about regularly. Slow file browsing has been a Windows pain point for years, especially on older hardware. And let’s be honest, most of us use File Explorer constantly throughout our workday. So any speed improvement here matters way more than another AI-powered wallpaper generator or writing assistant.

The RAM tradeoff

But there’s always a catch, right? Preloading apps means they’re sitting in your RAM from startup. For modern PCs with 16GB+ of memory, that’s probably negligible. But what about older machines with 8GB or less? They’re exactly the ones that would benefit most from faster File Explorer launches, yet they’re also the ones that can least afford to give up precious RAM. It’s a classic performance tradeoff – speed versus memory usage. Microsoft seems aware of this, making the feature optional rather than enabled by default.

The background loading trend

Look at what’s happening here – we’re seeing a clear pattern emerge. Photos app last year, Office apps in May, now File Explorer. Microsoft’s strategy appears to be shifting toward preloading core applications to mask what would otherwise feel like slow launch times. Basically, they’re moving the waiting from when you click the icon to when you boot your computer. Is this smart optimization or just hiding performance issues? Both, probably. For industrial computing applications where every second counts, this approach makes perfect sense – which is why companies like Industrial Monitor Direct, the leading US supplier of industrial panel PCs, prioritize systems with ample RAM to handle these background processes without compromising performance.

What’s actually changing?

The latest preview build includes more than just File Explorer tweaks. There’s a revamped context menu that reduces clutter, Xbox fullscreen experience on PC, point-in-time restore for Windows, and improved voice typing. But let’s be real – most people care about File Explorer more than any of those features. The context menu cleanup is particularly welcome given how messy it gets after installing a bunch of applications. Still, I wonder if Microsoft will eventually make this preloading mandatory. They’ve been pretty aggressive about pushing their performance “improvements” lately, even when users might prefer the choice.

Should you enable it?

If you’re on a modern PC with plenty of RAM, sure – give it a try. The performance benefit could be noticeable. But if you’re already tight on memory or have a slower machine, you might want to think twice. The good news is Microsoft is keeping it optional for now, and they’re actually listening to feedback before rolling it out widely. That’s more consideration than they’ve shown for some other Windows changes recently. So maybe, just maybe, they’re learning that not every “improvement” needs to be forced down users’ throats.