It seems the November 2019 Update isn’t playing nice with Windows 10’s File Explorer. A number of users have taken to Microsoft’s Community forum to claim the new operating system is responsible for causing huge slowdowns when typing in the tool’s search bar.
In particular, some individuals are claiming the search box is freezing and causing their cursor to completely disappear. Additionally, it seems right-clicking a file to see its location (a new feature in the November 2019 Update) is similarly suffering from crashes.
Discussing the issue, one Windows 10 user said: “Sometimes the search box is getting totally stuck. In Windows Explorer (folders of Window Explorer process), it’s not clickable at all, neither right click nor left click works, until you force restart Windows Explorer. That fixes it for a while, until it gets stuck again…”
Another wrote: “I was having the same problem when I was using the update (KB4517245), when I clicked in the search box, I had to wait for a abnormally large amount of time before the search box unfreeze and the cursor appeared, the right click never worked for me, not even a single time when I was using the 1909 build 18363.476.
“However, after uninstalling that update (if you can call it that) and start using again the 1903 build 18362.476 everything is fine again.”
A third declared: “Exact same issue here and Windows build. Windows File Explorer is a mess. Even here in this window, I can’t cut/paste/move a single thing.”
Windows Latest said it was able to replicate the issue described by the users above after “several attempts”.
It wasn’t meant to be this way for File Explorer. Instead, the November 2019 Update was supposed to soup it up with a few new features worth shouting about, such as the ability to view local and cloud files in one place.
Although the number of Windows 10 users reporting the File Explorer issue appears to be limited, it’s certainly not something Microsoft had planned.
As a whole, the November 2019 Update is a fairly minimal update by Microsoft’s standards. The new operating system is certainly more focused on refining current features of Windows 10 than substantially overhauling it.
Microsoft has not yet commented on the issues with File Explorer, therefore it’s unknown if a fix is en route. Until then users that experience crashes are advised to use Task Manager to closer File Explorer and re-open it again.
Of course, if you’re really sick and tired of the bug then you can always uninstall the November 2019 Update.