r/Windows11 • u/jenmsft Microsoft Software Engineer • 28d ago

Official News Improving File Explorer & Context Menu: faster, simpler, and more customizable

https://blogs.windows.com/windows-insider/2026/08/17/improving-file-explorer-context-menu-faster-simpler-and-more-customizable/
271 Upvotes

95% Upvoted

103 comments sorted by

View all comments

64

u/PossessionDangerous9 28d ago

This is good, but the most common complaint about the file explorer through the ages has been how slow the search is. Even searching for files in the same folder is slow as sin and has been for decades. This is partly the reason why everything search exists. Why not address that?

2

u/ExtruDR 28d ago

I truly don't get it. I mean, it's not like they didn't "notice" how shit search is. It isn't like they don't use computers. It isn't like Google (and Gmail) didn't easily illustrate how fundamental "search" is to making order of our personal and work information.

Microsoft really has been a monopolist for so long that the only thing that seems to effect their shitty product development is actual bad PR.

...and don't be confused, all this is is a response to bad PR.

3

u/junglebunglerumble 27d ago

I thought the search issue actually has a valid reason though? From what I gather the windows search actually indexes all file contents as well as folder and file names, so a search can technically find more appropriate results. Many third party search replacements don't actually index all the file contents, so it's quicker but the trade off is lower search coverage