Microsoft Tried Preloading File Explorer to Make It Faster — A Test Reaveals It Isn’t Paying Off

With recent Insider Preview Build 26220.7271 (KB507030), Microsoft started testing a background preloading feature for Windows 11’s File Explorer. By the name, you can guess that it’s meant to speed up launch times when you open it. Microsoft’s idea behind this feature was to load key components in advance so the app feels snappier when you open it.

Microsoft’s effort to preload File Explorer in the background doesn’t seem to be as effective

But it seems that the promise of faster launch times still falls short, at least according to the tests performed by folks at Windows Latest. The preloaded File Explorer does start somewhat faster than without preloading. And that’s noticeable in slow-motion comparisons or under low load, the difference is reportedly very marginal. That being said, many issues are still not fixed.

Per a news outlet, File Explorer used roughly 32.4 MB of RAM at idle when preloading was disabled. Surprisingly, with preloading enabled, idle RAM usage bumped up to about 67.4 MB (that’s an extra ~35 MB reserved for the preloaded instance). The preloaded version did launch faster than the non-preloaded one when the PC was idle and under heavy load (at times when browser tabs were open).

That’s not all; the context menu, which is one of the frequent pain points for many while using File Explorer, still loads slowly. Overall UI responsiveness, folder navigation, and actions remained sluggish compared to what many expected the new feature would deliver.

According to the report, the root cause lies in how Windows 11’s File Explorer is built. It overlays modern UI frameworks (WinUI/XAML) on top of the legacy core engine originally designed for Windows 10. This layering adds rendering overhead, so while preloading helps with launch delay, it does nothing to speed up overall responsiveness, folder loading, or context-menu actions.

What to keep in mind?

Preloading can make File Explorer feel a bit quicker, but not as significantly as you may have thought. The performance still feels off across context menus and UI responsiveness when File Explorer works under heavy load or in daily use. If you don’t notice any improvement and prefer not to keep extra RAM reserved, you can disable preloading via File Explorer > View > Folder Options > uncheck “Enable window preloading for faster launch times.”