File Explorer’s This PC search—long the slowest and most frustrating way to find a file on a Windows 11 machine—is finally getting a dramatic speed upgrade, Microsoft has confirmed. In a reply on X, Marcus Ash, Microsoft’s design and research lead for Windows and Devices, said the performance improvements being made to Windows Search will come to File Explorer next, starting with “dramatic speed improvements when searching across This PC.”

What’s Actually Changing

Ash’s statement responds directly to user complaints that File Explorer’s search feels like a wholly separate, slower product from the Windows Search box. Windows Latest illustrated the gap starkly: searching for a recently opened file took the taskbar-based Windows Search about one second, while the same query launched from This PC churned for more than eight minutes before the test was abandoned.

The planned change isn’t just a tuning tweak. Microsoft intends to bring the same file-search enhancements it’s been developing for Windows Search—faster indexing, better relevance, substring matching, and typo handling—into File Explorer itself. The announcement clarifies that the “reliability” fix shipped in March 2026 (KB5079473) was only a partial step. That update improved search reliability across multiple drives and This PC but didn’t address the outright speed deficit that makes broad searches impractical.

File Explorer’s search scope is uniquely demanding. A query from This PC canvasses local disks, removable drives, network mounts, libraries, cloud placeholders, and unindexed corners. That sweep makes it the most common—and most critical—search path when a user doesn’t know where a file lives. If the feature is too slow to use, people abandon Explorer for PowerShell, Everything, or manual folder drilling, defeating File Explorer’s purpose as a file manager.

What It Means for You

For everyday home users, a faster This PC search means less time staring at a “Working on it” status bar. You might not need to remember whether a photo landed in Pictures, Downloads, or OneDrive—just type the filename and trust that results appear before you lose your train of thought. This is especially valuable on machines with multiple drives or large libraries, where navigation by memory is no longer practical.

Power users and IT professionals stand to gain even more. When troubleshooting a workstation, searching for a log file, script, or installer often needs to be fast and broad. A query that takes minutes forces a context switch to a command-line tool or a third-party search engine. If Microsoft delivers on its promise, This PC search could become the first resort again, saving steps and reducing the impulse to install extra software for basic file hunting.

Administrators in managed environments will want to watch how this interacts with existing search policies. The underlying improvements come from the same code base as the revamped Windows Search, which now offers controls under Settings > Privacy & security > Search to disable web and Microsoft Store suggestions. Those options are particularly welcome where local results should take pure priority. However, factors like indexing scope, OneDrive Files On-Demand state, network share permissions, and encrypted volumes still define what can be found. A faster client experience doesn’t eliminate those boundaries; it only makes what is indexable appear more quickly.

How We Got Here

Microsoft’s recent search overhaul started publicly rolling out to Windows Insiders on July 13, 2026. That update simplified the Windows Search Box interface, stripped out MSN content, daily quizzes, and trending searches, and focused on surfacing local apps, settings, and files. It also introduced typo correction, substring matching (so “menu” finds “StartMenuComparisonMay”), and two-character file search. Under the hood, the engine was retuned for faster, more dependable local results.

When Ash posted about those changes on X, a follower asked whether the improvements would also reach File Explorer. Another user noted that File Explorer’s search already excludes web results, which should theoretically make it faster—yet it lags far behind. Ash’s reply confirmed that the teams have been working to unify file-search performance across Windows surfaces, with File Explorer as the next target.

File Explorer’s performance woes aren’t new. Microsoft acknowledged in May 2026 that the app had been slower than its Windows 10 counterpart for years, partly because of its hybrid architecture. While newer areas like Home and Gallery use WinUI 3, conventional folder views still rely on older Win32 code paths. This split explains why some parts of Explorer feel modern and snappy while directory browsing and search remain sluggish. A June 2026 preview update (KB5095093) addressed launch performance, address-bar responsiveness, and hangs when mounting disk images, but those fixes didn’t touch the core search pipeline.

By tying File Explorer’s search directly to the new Windows Search engine, Microsoft is taking a more architectural approach. Instead of patching the old query code, it appears to be transplanting the improved indexing and relevance logic. That’s a heavier lift but one that could repay itself in consistency across the OS.

What to Do Now

No action is required today—the File Explorer search improvements haven’t shipped yet, and Ash offered no build number or timeline. However, there are steps you can take to prepare or to experience the groundwork already laid.

First, if you rely heavily on This PC searches, ensure your indexing settings are correct. Go to Settings > Privacy & security > Searching Windows, and confirm the locations you need are included. Adding large drive roots to the index will give any future improvement the best data to work with. The classic Indexing Options control panel (type “index” in Start) still provides granular control over file types and excluded paths.

Second, if you want to try the revamped Windows Search that will power the File Explorer changes, join the Windows Insider Program and opt into the Experimental channel. That channel is the earliest and least stable, so it’s not suitable for production machines, but it lets you test the new search box, typo fixes, and the setting to turn off web suggestions. Seeing how those behave on your system can give you a preview of the relevance logic that will eventually reach File Explorer.

For IT administrators, continue to manage search via existing Group Policy or MDM settings. The new search controls for web and Store suggestions will need to be evaluated once they reach stable builds. Don’t relax any file-discovery practices yet—the coming boost is a client-side improvement, not a magic wand that makes every file instantly findable across network shares or unsupported file formats.

Outlook

The most encouraging signal is that Microsoft has identified the right benchmark: This PC search, the widest scope in File Explorer, is the feature that must get faster first. If the company’s “dramatic” speed claims hold up on real multi-drive systems, it could begin to restore trust in a basic OS capability that users have been routing around for years.

Expect a staged arrival. The new Windows Search is still limited to the Experimental Insider channel and rolling out gradually even there. File Explorer’s version will likely appear first in Experimental builds as well, giving enthusiasts and testers an early look before it trickles down to Beta and eventually stable releases. No dates have been promised, but the parallel development tracks suggest that the plumbing is already in place and that early builds could surface sooner than skeptics assume.

More broadly, a successful unification of search between Windows Search and File Explorer would strengthen the case that Microsoft can improve foundational Win32 workflows without waiting for a complete rewrite of File Explorer—something the company has never announced. For now, the message to Windows users is clear: the slowest part of your file manager is finally getting the attention it deserves.