Windows Explorer
Ranked 3 of 19 file managers by recommenders
Recommended for its tabs, keyboard navigation, and fast opening, and many prefer it to macOS Finder. Common caveat: slow loading, freezes and crashes.
Recommended for its tabs, keyboard navigation, and fast opening, and many prefer it to macOS Finder. Common caveat: slow loading, freezes and crashes.
177 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 36
- criticize it
- 141
- approval share
- 20%
Recommended in 11 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Owned for 2 years
Median of the 4 owners who said how long they have had it.
Each square is one year.
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 36 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 0.2 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, not met.
- Recommended in 11 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Better than macOS Finder
“the windows XP explorer in particular was fundamentally objectively better than finder”
Comment from 6 Sep 2026 in “Finder is so frustrating and has been since day one” “Finder is a rare case in macOS where Windows actually outclasses it in every way.”
Comment from 7 Sep 2026 in “Finder is so frustrating and has been since day one” “Basic OS stuff like Explorer is just light years ahead of Finder.”
Comment from 23 Nov 2025 in “Are consumers just tech debt to Microsoft?” - Comment from 6 Sep 2026 in “Finder is so frustrating and has been since day one”
- Comment from 6 Sep 2026 in “Finder is so frustrating and has been since day one”
Useful tabs
“Tabs in file explorer and notepad are my favorite windows feature in decades.”
Comment from 2 Jun 2026 in “Stop Ruining It” “You can pull the File Explorer tabs from my cold, dead hands!”
Comment from 2 Jun 2026 in “Stop Ruining It” “Tabs on notepad and file explorer are extremely nice.”
Comment from 3 May 2026 in “Windows quality update: Progress we've made since March” - Comment from 2 Dec 2025 in “After Windows Update, Password icon invisible, click where it used to be”
- Comment from 3 Jun 2026 in “Stop Ruining It”
Opens instantly, feels responsive
“It has a nice feel compared to the new laggy context menus and selections”
Comment from 25 Nov 2025 in “Windows GUI – Good, Bad and Pretty Ugly (2023)” “explorer opens instantly on my windows desktop”
Comment from 15 May 2026 in “WinUI 3 Performance: A Leap Forward” “Windows Explorer displayed them instantly.”
Comment from 28 Jan 2026 in “Microsoft forced me to switch to Linux” - Comment from 5 Jun 2026 in “When AI Builds Itself”
Efficient keyboard navigation
“Watching someone experienced using Windows' file manager with only the keyboard is almost vi-like in its efficiency.”
Comment from 6 Sep 2026 in “Finder is so frustrating and has been since day one” “I just tested and was able to navigate to any part of the File Explorer window with nothing but a keyboard.”
Comment from 2 Dec 2025 in “After Windows Update, Password icon invisible, click where it used to be” “I love skipping back 4 folders in one go.”
Comment from 22 Jun 2026 in “Windows UI evolution: Clicking an unassociated file”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Slow, freezes and crashes
“it's incredibly slow and unstable now and frequently crashes, taking the taskbar down with it”
Comment from 28 Jan 2026 in “Microsoft forced me to switch to Linux” “Explorer still freezes every second day, GUI interactions take several seconds and the sidebar is full of tabloid headlines and ads.”
Comment from 30 Dec 2025 in “Win32 is the stable Linux ABI” “I still don't know how to create a native app so inefficient that, it needs to take more than 500 milliseconds to open a directory”
Comment from 20 Mar 2026 in “Our Commitment to Windows Quality” - Comment from 23 Jan 2026 in “Threat Actors Expand Abuse of Microsoft Visual Studio Code”
- Comment from 22 Nov 2025 in “Microsoft Will Preload Windows 11 File Explorer to Fix Bad Performance”
- Comment from 15 May 2026 in “WinUI 3 Performance: A Leap Forward”
- Comment from 2 Jun 2026 in “Stop Ruining It”
- Comment from 2 Nov 2025 in “Linux gamers on Steam cross over the 3% mark”
- Comment from 23 Nov 2025 in “Microsoft Will Preload Windows 11 File Explorer to Fix Bad Performance”
- Comment from 2 Nov 2025 in “Linux gamers on Steam cross over the 3% mark”
Cluttered, dated interface
“Explorer still freezes every second day, GUI interactions take several seconds and the sidebar is full of tabloid headlines and ads.”
Comment from 30 Dec 2025 in “Win32 is the stable Linux ABI” “they make it hard for users to find their home folder and present a bunch of virtual things that are confusing”
Comment from 18 Jun 2026 in “What was nice about the UI of Windows 2000” “Microsoft managed fill their top-space and not let enough space for the address to be properly displayed”
Comment from 2 Jun 2026 in “Stop Ruining It” - Comment from 2 Dec 2025 in “After Windows Update, Password icon invisible, click where it used to be”
Poor handling of large folders
“Explorer file browser is just disaster. I am forced to use third-party browsing app when the directory contains hundreds of media.”
Comment from 29 Jan 2026 in “Microsoft forced me to switch to Linux” “explorer would be so slow with fodlers that has a large number of files it would darastically impede my workflow”
Comment from 15 May 2026 in “WinUI 3 Performance: A Leap Forward”
Other file managers people recommend
The four most recommended other file managers, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dolphin file manager | 77 | 19 | 80% | 12 | — | Approved |
| Finder (macOS) | 61 | 172 | 26% | 9 | 15 yrs22 owners | — |
| Windows ExplorerThis page | 36 | 141 | 20% | 11 | 2 yrs4 owners | — |
| Midnight Commander | 34 | 5 | 87% | 12 | — | Approved |
| File Pilot | 31 | 8 | 79% | 10 | — | Approved |
What people said
40 of the 196 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“I used to have Windows Explorer with the column view in the main pane and the tree view on the left pane and it was perfect”
“Finder is a rare case in macOS where Windows actually outclasses it in every way.”
“Watching someone experienced using Windows' file manager with only the keyboard is almost vi-like in its efficiency.”
“the windows XP explorer in particular was fundamentally objectively better than finder”
“Explorer is a much better tool than Finder.”
“at least Explorer (windows 10 version anyway) let you easily SEE the file system”
“Windows Explorer is better than Finder”
“while Explorer is far from a perfect piece of software, its not even close to this bad”
“I prefer Windows Explorer's interface, where the folders are on the left side and the files on the right.”
“I love skipping back 4 folders in one go.”
“they make it hard for users to find their home folder and present a bunch of virtual things that are confusing”
“it instantly pops up an explorer window”
“Tabs are great, especially in laptops.”
“Windows Explorer taking multiple seconds to load and often a bright flash of a white background during the load”
“Microsoft managed fill their top-space and not let enough space for the address to be properly displayed”
“Not being able to grab the top left of the window and drag feels really strange.”
“You can pull the File Explorer tabs from my cold, dead hands!”
“Tabs in file explorer and notepad are my favorite windows feature in decades.”
“explorer opens instantly on my windows desktop”
“explorer would be so slow with fodlers that has a large number of files it would darastically impede my workflow”
“Tabs on notepad and file explorer are extremely nice.”
“I still don't know how to create a native app so inefficient that, it needs to take more than 500 milliseconds to open a directory”
“an "extract" button show up when you right click an archive file in Explorer”
“Explorer file browser is just disaster. I am forced to use third-party browsing app when the directory contains hundreds of media.”
“it's incredibly slow and unstable now and frequently crashes, taking the taskbar down with it”
“Windows Explorer displayed them instantly.”
“it somehow seems to still be leagues ahead of the options in linux gui land”
“speeding up their file browser by loading it at boot time rather than actually trying to fix the actual fucking problems”
“Explorer still freezes every second day, GUI interactions take several seconds and the sidebar is full of tabloid headlines and ads.”
“It's a terrible, clunky 90's UI for something that is, as you describe it, extremely basic and obvious.”
“I just tested and was able to navigate to any part of the File Explorer window with nothing but a keyboard.”
“is nicer with the new tab functionality”
“It has a nice feel compared to the new laggy context menus and selections”
“Basic OS stuff like Explorer is just light years ahead of Finder.”
“They should really be looking at fixing the issues with the startup time and slow performance of explorer”
“explorer.exe crashes when dragging directory windows between a 1080p display and a 4k display in a multi-monitor setup”
“you will never be able to do file operations as quickly in a terminal as you could in a good GUI”
“When Windows Explorer offers a more performant and featureful experience”
“open a directory full of .mp4s and sometimes the list briefly appears but then it goes completely blank”
“I am constantly finding the whole explorer locking up just copying files via USB because of reasons unknown”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.