Microsoft is testing background preloading of the File Explorer to speed up Windows 11
Microsoft has released Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26220.7271 to the Dev and Beta channels. This update brings several new features and usability improvements for Windows testers.
The preview introduces point-in-time restore, enabling users to roll their device back to a previous state for easier recovery and troubleshooting. At the same time, Microsoft is exploring preloading File Explorer in the background, aiming to make File Explorer launch noticeably faster. These improvements target core Windows usability and reliability.
While those features focus on foundational experiences, gaming users will benefit from the expanded availability of the Xbox Full Screen Experience (FSE). With this update, FSE is now available on more Windows handhelds and additional Windows 11 PCs, providing a distraction-free game interface for controller-based play.
Other updates include support for uninstalling Microsoft Store-managed apps directly from the Store's library page, and the rollout of fluid dictation for voice typing users on devices with a neural processing unit. Fluid dictation provides smoother voice input by automatically correcting grammar, punctuation, and filler words as users speak.
Following these enhancements, Microsoft is also bridging Android and PC workflows. Owners of recent Honor, Huawei, Oppo, Samsung, and vivo Android phones can now open Microsoft 365 Copilot files that were started on their phones directly in the relevant app on their Windows PC, or in the default web browser if needed.
Microsoft is additionally testing and refining the Click-to-Do top bar experience for future updates.
- Operating System
- Paid • Proprietary
Related news
External links
- Announcing Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26220.7271 (Dev & Beta Channels)Windows • Official source
- Microsoft is testing a Windows 11 tweak that preloads File Explorer in the background to make it fasterWindows Central
- Microsoft is making File Explorer in Windows 11 faster, and I couldn't be happierNeowin
- Microsoft confesses that File Explorer loads too slow in Windows, plans to enable preload to make it open fastergHacks
- Microsoft says it will always run Windows 11 File Explorer in the background to load it fasterWindows Latest
- Windows 11 File Explorer: Microsoft Tests ‘Preloading’ to Fix Lagging BehaviorWinBuzzer
Comments
If Microsoft would asked me, I'd naively say to load few File Explorer windows at startup and hide them.
But since each window could eat more than 500MB of RAM, which is more than a Chrome tab, I'd say go for rewrite it in HTML/JS and display it using like Edge.
Then Microsoft would be able to force users to install Edge because it would be part of Windows core.
(Satya, you can contact me, I've got many other great ideas to improve Windows!)
this is embarrassing, it seems like microsoft is doing everything they can to keep windows as bloated as possible
Preloading sounds exactly like a solution Copilot would give you if you asked it how to speed up a laggy app.