The Windows 11 File Explorer is slow, unreliable, and buggy. If only we could go back in time and replace it with the version from Windows 10.
If only.
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As it turns out, we can do this. In fact, previous version of File Explorer is still lurking in Windows 11, at least for now. (There are indications that this legacy code might be removed in Windows 11 version 24H2, and this kind of thing is always possible.) To see it, just launch Control Panel, another legacy UI, though this one is easily found with Search. Then, click the “Up” button in the toolbar (it looks like an up arrow). Voila. It’s 2015 all over again.
Of course, if you are interested in using this interface regularly, launching Control Panel each time isn’t a great solution. There are various registry changes you can make, which is always dicey. So a better approach, perhaps, is to try a third-party utility. And I’ve been experimenting with ExplorerPatcher, which seems to work well. It’s free and in addition to supporting multiple versions of File Explorer, it also has options for configuring other parts of the UI, like Start and the Taskbar.
Risky? Maybe. And, as noted, this and other similar utilities could stop working if Microsoft ever gets rid of some legacy code that’s still in Windows 11. But it’s certainly worth looking at.