it's also using the exact same kernel, the only difference is explorer.exe and default apps funny enough. But I have to admit that the file explorer (not to be confused with explorer.exe the desktop), is nicer with the new tab functionality.
I know it's subjective, but I care less about the tabs and more about the missing right click options. I'm also annoyed that 11's explorer uses literally double the memory to perform the same function with less options.
I know you can add the missing right click options back. I just shouldn't have to.
Just to double check... I loaded the same folder in Windows 10 IOT LTSC and Windows 11 Pro retail. Explorer.exe used ~500Mb peak working memory. In Windows 10 it was less than 200Mb. In windows 10 it also loaded about 2x faster, despite the system I'm using being objectively worse hardware in every single measurable way.
Oh no, its going to use 1.8% more of my system's memory, what a nightmare, totally unusable.
Why is 200MB acceptable but peaking to 500MB just totally unacceptable and problematic? The original Macintosh had a graphical desktop with 128KB of RAM, shouldn't anything more than 50KB be unacceptable?
EDIT: Just checked on a couple of my Windows 11 machines, all of them have Explorer using <200MB of memory. So no, explorer.exe isn't necessarily using 500MB of memory. Something else is going on with that system.
Keep in mind that explorer now uses 100% more resources than it did 5 years ago, but it still can not do basic things that Mac and open source competitors can do. It's almost 40 years old, and doesn't really do more than it did back then.
I don't think MS cares to be competitive at all. Here is a small list of things other file managers can do that MS would never dream of (because it would require effort):
* Batch rename files
* File metadata/tag support
* Sessions/saved layouts (sort of exists in a half finished state)
* Fish/SSH Support
* Builtin hash/checksum support
* Native dual pane views
* Customizable keyboard shortcuts
* Built-in terminal
* Handle compressed files (outside limited zip compatibility)
* Search with advanced features (offers limited support)
* File versioning
* The ability to navigate entirely with the keyboard
* File transfer queue management (think Terracopy)
I noticed you weren't specific, because you know you're wrong.
EDIT - To clarify, since we're many levels deep now. I'm specifically talking about file explorer. After 40 years of windows we have an explorer.exe that is still inferior to midnight commander in many ways and uses more memory than Windows XP used in total just to show us the files.
This is incorrect. explorer.exe does more than just "show us the files", it is essentially the entire desktop environment. The taskbar, the start menu, file explorer windows, all the notification area, the quick settings area, etc. are all "explorer.exe".
A number of those features do exist in Explorer, a number can be trivially added with PowerToys, but I take it you're not actually interested in truth or reality.
Which ones? Name it and I'll show you how broken or weak it is compared to free alternatives.
Powertoys doesn't count anymore than just downloading a better file manager does. If I have to download something to replace or enhance it, you don't get credit.
> Name it and I'll show you how broken or weak it is compared to free alternatives
We've now gone from "these features can't possibly ever exist because M$ so bad" to "they're not the absolute best possible implementation that could ever exist". I'm sure you'll continue to move the goalposts.
But sure, I'll name a few.
Only having limited ZIP support for archives. Its not true, it supports tar and 7z archives natively now as well, supporting a number of different compression formats including Zstandard and xz. Are there other compression utilities out there that support more? Sure. But saying it only has limited zip support and that's it is just a lie.
File versioning? File History has been a feature since Windows 8.
I just tested and was able to navigate to any part of the File Explorer window with nothing but a keyboard. I've used it a number of times with only a keyboard, but I wasn't sure that every thing was selectable. But yes, can confirm, you can use the whole thing with only a keyboard.
A Preview Pane? Really? Yes, File Explorer has a preview pane. Go to View > Preview Pane. This one really just gets me though. Are you truly this ignorant of extremely basic obvious features, or are you just making things up to complain about?
OTOH I reveived a password protected zip file at work on win11 today and I had to install 7zip because explorer couldn't present me the password dialog to extract it.
Also it is true there are features that exist but are half assed. Like virtual desktops. I use them all the time on Linux but on windows they are so inconvenient and unpractical especially if you have multiple monitors. One simole example is you can't move a window from one screen to another while also moving it from one virtual desktop to another, you have to do it in 2 pass.
> But saying it only has limited zip support and that's it is just a lie.
I wasn't aware of that. It wasn't a lie, I'm just old. Mea Culpa. The last time I checked it only did ZIP, and only did that poorly as it lacked support for encrypted archives (only supporting older easily crackable archives). I've been installing 7zip out of habit for so long I failed to notice it improved. I'll give the new features a try.
> File History has been a feature since Windows 8.
File history is an OS level feature that's disabled by default, and that I believe requires admin to enable. It doesn't really feel like it's fair, since the average user can't.. use it. Change control should just be something explorer does natively (at least optionally) when moving/copying/renaming/etc. Ctl-z just isn't enough in 2025. But that's fine, you can have credit for this one too.
That said, I do give MS credit for adding multiple undo steps sometime around Windows XP. Being able to ctl-z multiple times was a feature people actually wanted.
> I just tested and was able to navigate to any part of the File Explorer window with nothing but a keyboard.
AFAIK you still cannot group files, sort the view, create a zip file, create a new file, burn a disc, etc without clumsily navigating menus intended for mouse only usage with the keyboard. Yes, it's possible but it's incredibly painful, slow, and difficult to understand. All of those things should either have hotkeys or let you assign hotkeys of your own. In fact, every part of the UI should, but mostly does not. This is terrible for accessibility AND for productivity.
MS has to be aware that it's essentially unusable with a keyboard, they obviously just decided not to care for the last 20+ years.
> Are you truly this ignorant of extremely basic obvious features, or are you just making things up to complain about?
Yeah, I should have been more specific. I was specifically think of Mac's finder and "Quick Look" or whatever it's called. You press space and you get an instant preview, for however many files you have selected.
In windows you have to turn on this clunky sidebar that takes up screen real-estate all day every day until you need it (or never need it). Worse it doesn't really work for a lot of file types so you just end up opening the full application, and mayeb worst of all it stinks out loud from a security perspective. I don't want to preview every piece of malware from the internet. I want to preview the one thing that needs previewed.
It's a terrible, clunky 90's UI for something that is, as you describe it, extremely basic and obvious. Hell, windows can't even preview markdown properly. Sometimes it feels like a time warp to the 90's.
So yes. Ignorance, goal post moving, acknowledging these features did exist just not to your standards so you claimed they didn't exist, and then pointing out a completely different application as a feature missing from a file browser. Finder doesn't have that "Preview" or "Quick Look" applications in MacOS, they're separate apps. And they're definitely not a "Preview pane" as you listed in your requirements.
More ignorance about the preview pane as well in this comment. You can quickly open and close the preview pane with Win+P. Files marked as downloaded from the internet or from file shares are blocked by default these days, one needs to unblock them for them to be opened by the Preview pane.
FWIW, beta builds have Notepad with markdown support. Sure, that's still not File Explorer having markdown support, but neither does Finder. But its whatever, you're shifting the goalposts to features for File Explorer compared to Finder + any other arbitrary application on the system.
What's the single keyboard shortcut on Finder to burn a new CD? If Finder doesn't have it, I guess MacOS is a trash OS with no redeemable value, since that's an obviously critical feature for people to have productive use of their operating systems in 2025.
I'm done here man. You just want to rant and complain features don't exist rather than spending two seconds to see if the feature is there or not.
I appreciate the conversation either way. I did learn a few things.
Ultimately I complain because I like windows and want it to improve. I'm just incredibly frustrated that after 20 years of explorer.exe this is the best a trillion dollar company can manage.
You might start with actually looking at the features being implemented and the other tools the company publishes instead of ignoring them and brushing them off. You wrote off the idea of installing PowerToys, but they're literally published and fully endorsed by Microsoft. They'd cover a lot of those gaps you're complaining about and have existed for a long while.
Instead of being so combative and proclaiming these things can't possibly exist, maybe you should look at what is actually there. And I admit, maybe I shouldn't be so rough, I'm sorry for how negative I've been in this exchange. I get frustrated when people say obviously false things. I'll try and work on that. I hope you work on growing as well.
Shouldn't you then also complain that explorer.exe is consuming 200MB when previous graphical desktops managed it in handfuls of kilobytes? Once again, why is 200MB OK, but 500MB, oh boy, that's just far too much. Couldn't that CAD software also make use of that other 200MB? Why not demand 20MB? Or 2MB? Or 20KB?
How much of that extra 300MB is paged out and not actually in active memory? On both systems, how much of the total is actually paged out and not in current system memory?
Are you trying to run a modern CAD system on a device with only 512MB of RAM or something?
What do I get out of it using double the memory? It has zero new features that a normal human would want. There's supposed to be a benefit in a cost/benefit comparison or you just get a divide by zero error.
See my other comment in this thread for a list of the many, many, many ways Microsoft continues to chose not to improve.
You were speaking of explorer.exe's memory usage. That includes practically all the desktop experience. The right click menu, the desktop, the taskbar, the start menu, and more. Kill the process and see what all disappears. So no, you weren't speaking specifically about the file explorer, though it would take having some knowledge to understand that.
> So no, you weren't speaking specifically about the file explorer, though it would take having some knowledge to understand that.
Don't blame me if the architecture stinks.
The fact is it's unnecessarily large, complex, and wasteful of resources isn't the consumers fault. Deciding to use a single monolithic block of whack code that uses all my memory instead of separating those functions wasn't my choice and I'm not gonna change my expectations to suit that weird decision.
You don't have any idea of what it actually is or what its actually doing but you're 100% certain its overly large, complex, and wasteful.
Incredible.
And as mentioned, on my other Win11 machines I couldn't get explorer.exe to use more than ~200MB, with most of its usage around 110-130MB. I think you've got something else going on there, potentially lots of other 3rd party applications hooked into it causing excessive memory usage. Win11 doesn't inherently use 500MB of memory compared to Win10 only using a bit under 200MB. That's something with your machines.
Windows 10 LTSC will still get updates for years, and uses less than half the resources that 11 does.