How to Fix a Slow Opening Windows Downloads FolderHow to fix that frustratingly slow opening Windows Downloads folder when the status bar slowly fills for no apparent reason while you wait.
Most folders open quickly when browsing through your hard drive in File Explorer (aka Windows Explorer). However, the Downloads folder, one of your computer's most frequent and important places, often takes 10 seconds or longer to load fully.
Why does my downloads folder take so long to open? Even if you have a speedy SSD, a status bar in Explorer slowly fills itself for no apparent reason while you watch and wait for your files to show. Then, the downloads folder process does not respond. Great.
The slow-loading Downloads folder problem occurs because, by default, Windows tries to create thumbnails for photos and videos in the folder, even if none of the files are pictures. This process takes some time to complete, and some users find this wait annoying. With a quick settings change, you can open the Downloads folder quickly in Windows 7, 8 or 10. Here's how.
To fix a slow opening Windows 10 downloads folder, you will need to perform the following steps:
- Open File Explorer. You can get there by hitting Windows Key + E or clicking the Explorer icon in your taskbar.
- Right-click on the Downloads shortcut in the right window pane and select Properties.
How to Fix Windows 10 Slow Downloads Folder - Navigate to the Customize tab.
- Select "General items" from the "Optimize this folder for:" list.
How to Fix Windows 10 Slow Downloads Folder - Click Ok
The changes should occur immediately, and the dreaded waiting-for-folder-to-load time should be long gone.
Following the method discussed here, your Windows Downloads folder speed should be much improved. It should open as fast as any other folder. If you have similar problems accessing other folders, you can use the same steps to improve performance; just set the folder optimisation to general and click ok.
If the folder still takes time to display content, your system probably has some other issue. You could try disabling Cortana, turning off thumbnails for images and videos or turning off search indexing to see if these are slowing down your computer. If your computer is generally very slow, you may benefit from resetting Windows 10 back to defaults, which will restore it to factory settings and clean all the programs, leaving you with a computer as it was fresh out the box.
