This seems like the right place to ask, does anyone know a lightweight Explorer alternative? I basically just want Windows XP explorer on Windows 10. I don't need tabs or dual panes, I just want it to be as fast as it used to be.

Whenever I run XP in a VM, I'm amazed that explorer windows not only open instantly, but fully drawn! In W10 it takes half a second to even respond, and then another half second while it draws the UI elements one by one.

If I move a folder, Sublime Text detects it instantly, but the same explorer window I used to move it takes several seconds to register the change it itself made...

Although I am not having these problems with Explorer, I am going to answer this out of interest.

Obviously running Windows in a VM will be slower, but besides, Explorer is more than just the file manager.

It used to be very easy to replace the shell (Explorer.exe) with your own binary, but while this is now harder in later Windows versions it is still doable. I loved to play around with that when I was younger, and before I got seriously into Linux.

Now, there is actually a few options:

- Aston Shell used to be my favorite, but it does not seem like it is actively developed anymore. It is also closed source, which is potentially a security concern.

- Classic Shell (Works for Windows 10)

- ExplorerPatcher (taskbar enhancements for Windows 11)

- StartIsAllBack (taskbar enhancements for Windows 11)

I do not recommend replacing the default file manager, because Explorer is already extremely good. If this is slow for you, most likely something else is causing it to be slow. E.g. Waiting for a external/internal storage device to respond perhaps?

Now, talk about Finder on Mac – while not slow, its UI is truly horrendous compared to Explorer on Windows or file managers in Linux.

If your system is slow, then keep in mind that a lot of things are going on with later versions of Windows that can make the system slow. I hate the "blackbox" nature of it, but fact is, you probably have a bottleneck somewhere, possibly you are still using a mechanical hard disk and/or do not have enough RAM for things to load properly. Windows prefetch should help speed things up, given enough RAM, but if you have too little, then it actually might make it worse.

I remember fiddling a lot with Windows services, like prefetch, search indexing. Etc. Basically turning these off will make a slow system feel more responsive. And, of course, Windows update and Windows defender should also be turned off entirely on older systems, because they will constantly pest you with updates and slow the system down. With bloatware added from the computer's manufacturer this only gets worse. Everything unnecessary running in the background should be purged from the system.