Windows 11 is testing a new underlying improvement for File Explorer that could potentially reduce RAM usage when you’re actively searching for an image or other files, such as those in Excel or PowerPoint. Microsoft is optimizing “search” performance in File Explorer, as it’s been causing high memory usage.

Microsoft is testing an efficient File Explorer search bar in Windows 11 Build 26220.7523 or newer, but it’s currently locked to Windows Insider machines only. Once you’ve access to the feature, File Explorer will automatically remove duplicate file indexing operations, which means Windows will do less redundant work when you search in File Explorer.

“Made some improvements to File Explorer search performance by eliminating duplicate file indexing operations, which should result in faster searches and reduced system resource usage during file operations.”

File Explorer Search is not a separate index or engine, as it’s built on top of Windows Search Indexer. While indexer is designed to be ‘smart,’ duplicate file indexing operations can happen sometimes, and in those cases, Windows ends up scanning or processing the same files or folders more than once for indexing purposes.

Windows Search index will now avoid duplicate file operations, which should result in less disk I/O, lower CPU cycles, and fewer background indexing tasks, so it’ll automatically reduce RAM usage.

Context menu is being decluttered

Microsoft is also making other parts of File Explorer better, including the context menu, which has been the center of attention lately because of the clutter mess it has become over the past few years.

In our tests, Windows Latest observed that Microsoft is moving options like “Compress to,” “Copy as path,” “Rotate right,” “Rotate left,” and “Set as desktop background” to a separate sub-menu called “Manage file.” On another PC, this sub-menu is called “Other actions,” which seems to suggest that Microsoft wants to dump all lesser-used options in this sub-menu.

Alll these improvements are being tested and will be rolled out in the last week of January or February.

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