Another new Windows 11 bug is slowing down people’s workflows

By Arif Bacchus Published November 4, 2021

There’s yet another bug in Windows 11 that might end up slowing down your workflows. This time around, you might experience a bit of a delay when triggering the context menus in the Windows 11 File Explorer.

Though Microsoft intends for the new File Explorer context menus to give you faster access to copying, pasting, and renaming files, Windows Latest reports that the performance of the menus is actually slower. Some Windows 11 users need to wait for as long as two seconds to open up when right-clicking to summon the context menu.

Feedback about the slow context menus in Windows 11. — Image used with permission by copyright holder

This is confirmed by many users who are complaining by filing feedback in the Windows 11 Feedback Hub. A search for “context menu delay” returns over seven different results of people detailing the issue. The feedback was filed from as most recently as a month ago to as far back as three months ago.

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“When you right-click the desktop or File Explorer in Windows 11, the context menu appears very slowly,” wrote one user in a Feedback thread with 267 upvotes. “After I upgrade[d] my Windows 10 to Windows 11, I notice[d] that [the] context menu [had] few seconds delays,” wrote another user.

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In most of these Feedback threads, people seem to be using low-end PCs. Yet, Microsoft indicated that “we’ve got this feedback” to confirm that it is looking into the issue.

In fact, Windows 11 Build 22478, which is being tested in the Windows Insider Program, appears to address the issue. In the changelog, Microsoft mentioned that the command bar was doing unnecessary calculations when navigating folders. It also detailed several bug fixes for the explorer.exe process, which is associated with File Explorer. However, this build is still in beta testing, and it could be a while before everyone sees a fix.

Windows 11 might bring new features like snap layouts and widgets, but it also has had its fair share of bugs. In one instance, there are thousands of empty folders in subsystem folders. In another, there was a memory leak issue that impacted the File Explorer. There even was a since-fixed bug that impacted AMD CPUs, where users could see a 15% drop in performance when gaming.

You can factor these issues into your decision about if it’s worth upgrading to Windows 11. The new operating system is still in the process of rolling out, and Microsoft hopes everyone on compatible PCs should have it by 2022.

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Former Digital Trends Contributor

Arif Bacchus is a native New Yorker and a fan of all things technology. Arif works as a freelance writer at Digital Trends…

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