Windows 11’s Low Latency Profile Fixes One of the Most Annoying Issues in File Explorer

The new Low Latency profile is a noticeable improvement to Windows 11 responsiveness, particularly in parts of the interface that previously felt inconsistent.

Why this update feels different

I’m usually skeptical when Microsoft talks about performance improvements in Windows 11 because too many of them are hard to feel in day-to-day use. The new Low Latency profile is different. It is a welcome change precisely because it improves the moments users actually notice: clicking something and waiting for Windows to respond.

Microsoft’s June update says it “accelerates app launch and core shell experiences such as Start menu, Search, and Action Center,” which matches broader reporting that Windows now briefly boosts CPU speed for short interactive tasks. In my testing, the biggest gain is not Start or Search. It is File Explorer.

File Explorer home is finally usable

Most noticeably, File Explorer’s Home page now feels usable. On my high-powered device, that page previously had an annoying habit of loading favorites and recent files slowly, partially rendering, or sometimes failing to render files in a timely way at all. That made one of the most visible parts of the Windows shell feel unreliable.

With the Low Latency profile in place, Home now appears almost instantly. I’ve also noticed a clear improvement when opening the Settings app and jumping to the Windows Update page, both of which feel snappier than they did before. These are not benchmark wins. They are usability wins, and for Windows 11, that matters more.

Where the improvement is less obvious

That said, this is not a universal fix for Windows 11’s performance woes. I have not noticed much difference in the Start menu, the widgets board, or general app launches. That lines up with early coverage suggesting the feature is narrow rather than transformative, and that its effects are most obvious in short shell interactions rather than sustained workloads.

In other words, this is Microsoft improving responsiveness around the edges of the experience, not fundamentally changing how Windows 11 performs as a whole.

Microsoft still has bigger performance problems to solve

And that broader problem remains. Some of the most frustrating Windows 11 slowdowns are not going to be solved by a brief CPU boost. Creating new OneDrive folders in File Explorer is still laggy. Renaming files and carrying out other OneDrive file operations still feels clumsy and delayed.

Ejecting USB disks that have already spun down remains a needlessly awkward experience. The same goes for some built-in web experiences, including Copilot apps, where the issue often feels more like software inefficiency than raw processing power.

So yes, this is a good update, and Microsoft deserves credit for making File Explorer’s Home page meaningfully better. But it is also a reminder of how much work remains before Windows 11 consistently feels polished, efficient, and enjoyable to use.