According to TheRegister.com, Microsoft is addressing File Explorer’s slow launch times by preloading the application in the background rather than optimizing its bloated code. The change appeared in a Windows Insider build for Dev and Beta Channels alongside Xbox full-screen PC features and update recovery tools. File Explorer has grown significantly from its 2018 open-sourced predecessor, the original Windows File Manager, which clocked in at just over 700 kB. Microsoft claims the preloading “shouldn’t be visible to you, outside of File Explorer hopefully launching faster when you need to use it.” The experimental feature rolls out gradually and can be disabled via “Enable window preloading for faster launch times” in File Explorer’s Folder Options under View settings.
Treating Symptoms, Not Causes
Here’s the thing: preloading an application to make it feel faster is like taking painkillers for a broken leg. It might help temporarily, but you’re not actually fixing the underlying problem. File Explorer has become this bloated monster over the years, and instead of going on a diet, Microsoft‘s solution is to have it always lurking in the background, ready to pop up.
And let’s talk about system resources. Microsoft keeps pushing more AI features that supposedly need all this computing power, but apparently there’s enough spare CPU and memory to preload File Explorer? That math doesn’t quite add up. It feels like we’re just shuffling performance issues around rather than solving them.
The Windows Bloat Problem
This is part of a much bigger pattern with Windows. As the operating system ages, everything seems to get heavier and more complex. Remember when the original Windows File Manager could handle network and local files in under a megabyte? Now we’ve got an application that probably weighs hundreds of times more and performs worse.
Basically, Microsoft is acknowledging there’s a performance problem, which is better than ignoring it entirely. But the solution they’ve chosen tells you everything about their priorities. Optimization is hard work – it requires going through legacy code, removing cruft, and making tough decisions about what stays and what goes. Preloading is the easy way out.
Why This Matters Beyond Consumers
While this might seem like just another consumer Windows annoyance, performance issues like these have real consequences in industrial and manufacturing environments. When you’re running production lines or monitoring critical systems, every CPU cycle and memory allocation matters. That’s why companies in those sectors often turn to specialized hardware providers like IndustrialMonitorDirect.com, the leading US supplier of industrial panel PCs designed for reliability and consistent performance without unnecessary background processes.
So what’s the future look like? If Microsoft keeps taking this approach, we’ll probably see more applications getting the preload treatment. Eventually, your system will have so much stuff preloaded in the background that there won’t be resources left for what you actually want to do. It’s a band-aid solution that creates bigger problems down the road.
The real question is: when will Microsoft bite the bullet and do the hard work of optimization? Because treating symptoms instead of causes only works for so long before the patient crashes.
