Microsoft investigating bug in Windows 11 File Explorer that makes the CPU hangry Microsoft is investigating why recent updates to Windows 11 are causing systems to be more power-hungry than normal. Users who try to check access to shared files and folders are finding that not only are they unable to view the information they're looking for, but that File Explorer will continue to draw CPU power even after …
It's a sensible setting.
The files it hides aren't really useful to see, and if you're looking for them you're probably capable of editing the registry to find them.
It's not all hidden files, it's just a few select ones, such as the page and hibernation files and the bootloader (if it's on c:).
> The files it hides aren't really useful to see
YMMV, and that's a non-IT guy speaking here. Just yesterday I had to backup the Thunderbolt Mail profile folder of an elder relative (Win10). This folder is obviously inside the hidden "don't you worry your pretty little head about that" \AppData vault. To get there, I had to find where to turn off hiding files and folders first, and I do admit I do not have the slightest clue which registry key does the same thing. (Country of the blind = one-eyed man is king, and all that.)
Of course I could spend some time searching the Internet for more or less helpful suggestions like "Blasphemy! If Microsoft had intended these files to be visible to anyone they wouldn't had hidden them!".
My point is, stuff "really useful" and "most users don't use it", it is convenient. Even if you only use it 1-2 times a year, even if only your personal computer support person uses it.
That's a different setting you're talking about, "Show hidden files, folders, and drives", not "Hide protected operating system files (Recommended)"
And if you are aware of the existance of the AppData folder, then you don't need to change that setting, just enter AppData in the navigation bar while being in the User's profile folder.
> "Show hidden files, folders, and drives", not "Hide protected operating system files (Recommended)"
True. (But I don't see why Microsoft wouldn't want to remove that setting too, for the same reasons.)
.
> if you are aware of the existance of the AppData folder, then you don't need to change that setting, just enter AppData in the navigation bar
You're overestimating me. I don't use either Windows or Thunderbird personally, I just surmised that the profile folder I was looking for might potentially be hidden somewhere down there, so I needed full visibility to be able to spot it, whatever it was named, where ever it was hidden.
Last time I used Windows extensively was back in WinXP, and clearly things have changed since. Back in WinXP there was a stupid, but simple logic behind the folder structure ("Program files", user data, all that). Apparently it hasn't become any less stupid, but they managed to make it way more complicated, with new, exciting folders you might potentially find some of your files in (like the mysterious "\Roaming" one)...
Wait a second. Are you suggesting the windows file explorer be given the ability to hide files from users without any option to see them? Yeah I don't think that will go down to well especially when you system runs out of space and you can't work out why.
Those aren't the only hidden files. If I put windows on the first thing I do is adjust all the explorer windows to be same, show hidden files and not hide extensions. I'm not sure why anyone of a tech background wouldn't do that. How are you going to find a hidden file in the registry if you don't know what's it's called?
> when you system runs out of space and you can't work out why
You're supposed to buy a new system. That's what most people do anyway: If something is not working to their full satisfaction (objectively or not), they leave it by the roadside and get the fresh new one their friends told them about.
As for why Microsoft insists on helping criminals easily smuggle their malware into peoples' computers, well you see, criminals are paying customers too... Besides, you can't displease all of the people all the time.
Wait a second. Are you suggesting the windows file explorer be given the ability to hide files from users without any option to see them?
Yes.
(Well, without any user visible option to set them. I'm not suggesting they remove the setting, but removing the ability to set it easily I don't see a problem with).
There are already critical operating system files and directories you can't see. It's very likely your C: drive has files called $MFT, $BITMAP, $BOOTLOADER and a few others to boot.
You don't need to see these, and deleting them would be bad, very bad.
Yeah I don't think that will go down to well especially when you system runs out of space and you can't work out why.
If you delete some of the files this option hides then your machine won't boot, so I assume that would solve the problem, yes.
Those aren't the only hidden files.
They're the only files hidden by this option. The 'Show hidden files' option isn't going, and shouldn't go.
If I put windows on the first thing I do is adjust all the explorer windows to be same, show hidden files and not hide extensions. I'm not sure why anyone of a tech background wouldn't do that.
Me either, it's my default too.
How are you going to find a hidden file in the registry if you don't know what's it's called?
The file names aren't stored in the registry, the option to show them is.
I still don't understand why you need to see these files? If you delete the boot loader your machine won't boot. if you delete ntoskrnl your machine won't boot. True freeing up the hibernate file can save space (turn off hibernation), as can not having a paging file (again, there's an option for that), however if you're saving space by deleting those kind of files in this day and age then you're much better off getting more storage.
Maybe I'm just too old, but I have seen the problems caused by the action this kind of setting is designed to avoid. as a techie who's done a lot of friend support over the years, I have seen people who will just open up the 'WINDOWS' folder (because it was that long ago) and just delete files they didn't like the look of. Then act with genuine surprise when it all stopped working. Still to this day not 100% sure what problem that particular user was trying to fix. It wasn't the 'me having to spend a few hours doing a re-install' problem.
Furthermore, as there are several replies to my earlier post from technical people that obviously misunderstand what this option does, confusing it with the 'Hidden Files' option, I stand by my comment.
> Right now, the only workarounds for stopping the high CPU utilization problem is either restarting the device or for the affected user to sign out. Locking Windows won't do the trick, Redmond wrote. The users must sign out.
So using Task Manager to kill File Manager has stopped working under Windows 11 as well?
And why would anyone expect locking Windows would help? Doesn't anybody else lock Windows when they go for a cuppa, fully expecting any tasks to continue?
(Disclaimer: zero practical experience using Win11; for all I know, TM has been neutered and locking now means deep sleep!)
> using Task Manager to kill
OMG that power is not for the common user to have! Only (Microsoft certified) properly licensed admins should be able to do something as dangerous as that!... /s
Microsoft claims those features "are not being regularly used by people", which obviously means they should be removed ASAP. Only the features "regularly used by people" (i.e. Office 365) should be accessible to the common user, everything else is wasted money. One empty, ad-covered surface with a big solitary "Office 365" button in the middle, that's Windows 13.
Jeez, Windows is increasingly turning into an overly greedy playpen for clueless suckers. If I didn't occasionally need it for games I would never ever use it again.
I’ve said it before, and at the risk of sounding like a broken recordMP3 file I’ll say it again: the first thing many tech-savvy Windows users do is disable/block the telemetry. So Microsoft only get telemetry data from the sort of users who need onscreen tutorials to prevent them from sticking the mouse up their nose. And this is what happens - “no-one was using these settings, so we’re safe to remove them”.
Note in case I’m misunderstood here, I am not advocating for us all to keep telemetry enabled. Quite the reverse. Microsoft should stop trying to foist this crap on us.
> Microsoft only get telemetry data from the sort of users
Microsoft clearly doesn't care about what any type of user wants or needs, it only follows marketing recommendations, which simply spell "More profit! Less expenditures!".
Following which, Windows will eventually (probably sooner than later) become an "exciting" ad-covered launcher for Office 365 (and any other paid services Microsoft has)...
" If I didn't occasionally need it for games I would never ever use it again."
Have a look at https://looking-glass.io/ , it may just save you dual-booting for the occasional game. It works brilliantly on my laptop running Fedora 38, passing through the Nvidia GTX1650 to the Win10 VM, while the Vega8 iGPU handles the host side. Alt-tabbing from Win10 running Forza Horizon 4 at 60fps back to Linux is witchcraft to my eyes! :)
> Have a look at https://looking-glass.io/
Thanks but sorry, a company who's only answer to the (slightly essential?) question "How does my product work" is just a YouTube link does inspire distrust. Can spend an hour or ten making and uploading a video, but can't be arsed to write 2 lines of plain text?
Anyway, as far as I guessed it is just some way to install a Windows VM? That wouldn't change much, since you'd still have a Windows to battle with, the fact it's contained doesn't really change anything, does it.
My guess is that killing explorer.exe will probably fix it, which is why signing out would work and locking would not. They probably didn't suggest it because the average user probably doesn't know the weird stuff that happens when you kill explorer and forget to start another version of it, which I think is the only reason the task manager still has a "new process" button (actually, it looks like it's "run new task" and possibly has been for years). Logging out is something people at least see the button for, so it's more familiar.
Huh? Why do you want to remove that one?
> "display file icon on thumbnails,"
Ah, now it makes sense.
Remove those two and you'll never see icons for anything that can be thumbnailed so you won't spot the moment that Microsoft overrides your choice of image viewer. Again.
"IrfanView? Bleugh! You want a proper Microsoft Media Experience!"
This post has been deleted by its author
True, but removing options to "tidy it up" is stupid. That's a bit like mum throwing all your toys away because you don't put them away in the cupboard when finished with them. The obvious solution is to put the less used menu choices under an "advanced" menu. That tidies things up automatically and it's just a very simply GUI change, not an OS code change and keeps the less used stuff for those who need or want it.
As I understand it, the traditional way to develop a product is to get feedback from your market place in order to develop ideas. From there, you try things out based on the information received.
"As is normal for the Dev Channel, we will often try things out and get feedback and adjust based on the feedback we receive," they wrote
The Redmond approach seems to work in reverse: they foist ideas on the users and see which ones stick. Perhaps GUI development is the exception to the rule. Or maybe Redmond need a core rethink.
Never used 11. But in 10 the ability to change the width of the columns in “detailed” (or whatever it’s called) mode in file explorer has been removed. For reasons that completely escape me other than to cripple the application.
My contempt and anger for MS cannot be put into words.
They don't care. The people who do care and drop Windows are a microscopic minority compared to the numbers of home users who have little clue and they are a tiny minority compared to the primary group of corporate drones who have not only no choice i what OS they use, it's most likely locked down by InTune or similar they either can't access or can't change most settings anyway. MS are simply dumbing down even further based on the majority use case to the detriment of the rest of us. It's been an ongoing trend with most tech devices, especially since PCs became consumer devices. Make the devices as simple as possible for the users so they don't have to bother their pretty little heads with actually learning how to use it (But meanwhile, keep changing the interface frequently so they still get lost and confused.)
They're assuming they have a perfect monopoly.
And at the moment, they do.
Apple could take most of what Microsoft have, except they're wedded to iPhone and have no real interest in Mac.
Eventually, some big company will have had enough of Microsoft shenanigans, and realise that they just don't need it anymore. No idea what they'll jump to, of course.
Understanding the Effective Access feature
“The Effective Access feature determines the permissions a user or group has on an object by calculating the permissions that are granted to the user or group. The calculation considers the group membership permissions and any of the permissions that are inherited from the parent object.”
“The calculation determines all the domain and local groups that the user or group is a member of.”
“The Effective Access feature only produces a rough calculation of the permissions that a user has. The actual permissions that a user has might be different, because permissions can be granted or denied based on how a user signs in.”
--
Well, that clears that one up :)
It's not the clearest paragraph, but since it's part of a chapter on file permissions, it's clearly not trying to give you all the details or even summarize the whole thing. If you try to explain the Unix file permissions system, which factors take precedence, when you use that, and when something else is used instead, you'd also need more space than that paragraph takes up. If you took a paragraph from the middle of that one, it might make similarly little sense. For example, on the first guide I found when searching, I have an option to quote a paragraph which is just about octal numbers to help you understand the output from stat or send them to chmod (it mentions neither call, just talks about the numbers). That works in the rest of the guide, but if I pasted that here, it wouldn't help increase understanding very much.
When are people going to realise that Windows is like Eastenders: it never finishes? The problem is that rather than introducing new features based on end-user requirements, it always seems like Microsoft has some other agenda. So many little things (and big things) in all Microsoft products seemingly never stable, because they're changing too often. Even within Microsoft 365, config options just disappear, replaced with a page that says 'so-and-so has be deprecated' or 'this feature has been moved to <click here>' and the link is broken. All this might matter slightly less if it wasn't for Microsoft's track record of making largely bloated, crap software. So many stupid bugs that are the result of only one thing: substandard quality control.
It's always been the same. From introducing OSes that are basically windowing environments that run in DOS and crash a little too often, to introducing OSes with childish primary-colour buttons and no in-built security of any kind. Now it's stupid stuff like adverts appearing in start menus, pleadings not to install Chrome and a couple of years where we couldn't right-click on the task bar to get the task manager.
I for one am sick of it. I use Macs as much as PCs in my work and I for all its faults at least MacOS is more consistent than Windows. However, I'm grateful for all the problems Microsoft brings to the table because quote honestly it's what brings in much of the reason for my work to even exist.
That is -- "If it works don't screw with it".
"File Explorer" still is unwieldy to use compared to the old hierarchical directories. Micorosft is still obsessed with trying to define a file type by its name extension (a fruitful source of problems and a one time vector for viruses). Its not a very good program but its tolerable for casual use provided they don't keep messing with it.
BTW -- I still use terms like 'directory' and 'sub-directory' -- I don't know who coined the term 'folder' because it sounds more 'office-y' but since there's relatively few people who know what a filing cabinet is these days, much less how to use one, then maybe its time to go 'full computer' again?
I don't know who coined the term 'folder'
Amiga Workbench used "Drawer". Gem used folders and pre-dates Windows. Apples Lisa also used folders and most likely followed the design ideas from Xerox Parcs Alto. So "folders" were probably coined at Xerox in late 70's as visual representations of what "under the hood" were still called directories in the OS.
And yet still they can't fix that Active Directory Users & Computers search functions will ALWAYS pre-select Users, Groups, etc. but not computers. Even when you're dealing with computer objects.
And when you switch to include Computer objects, it clears your current search and makes it happen again.
Don't even get me started on what fields are copy-able and what aren't in pretty much any standard windows dialog or system management application.
And why is Sysinternals STILL not part of core Windows?
Honestly, rather than fussing over explorer (which impacts all users negatively), why not fix some of the longest standing bugbears that your guys MUST be having to deal with the same as everyone else.
> why is Sysinternals STILL not part of core Windows?
Because Sysinternals know how to code and don't want to get mixed up with the Clippy Crowd.
.
> why not fix some of the longest standing bugbears
Because it's cheaper to just remove the broken features, after all, they don't generate any shareholder value.
"Many of these are legacy settings that have been around for ages and are not being regularly used by people on Windows 11."
Yes, people tend to set a setting once and then forget about it, they don't go fiddling with it twice a day just to see what it does. Plus most of these settings are synced anyway.
If they mean "most of these aren't switched on by many users in Windows 11" then it would actually make some sense. Although given that I've had health & safety people try and convince me that Windows doesn't meet UK health & safety law because you're no longer allowed to select a colour scheme and default font, I'd be a bit wary of removing anything like that myself.
The Register 
Biting the hand that feeds IT
Copyright. All rights reserved © 1998–2025
