Windows 11 Explorer does not open folders

Hello

I am having a difficult time with my Windows 11 Desktop. I Have Windows 11 Home Build 26100.3915. When I double click in a windows folder, it does not open right away. When it does the subdirectories and files below it start blinking on and off. Meanwhile my CPU speed performance also flickers up and down. I have tried different things like turning off all non-Microsoft services an programs at system startup to no avail. Sometimes it appears that it is not happening but a few minutes later I have the problem again. I even went as far as wiping my hardrive clean and reinstalled Windows. The problem did not go away. I have no idea what to do to fix the problem. Any help with my issues will be apreciated.

Thanks in advance.

Welcome to ElevenForum!

Do you have multiple drives in your system? If so, does this happen on folders on only one drive or on any drive?

If you do not have more than one drive, try plugging in an external drive or thumb drive and see if the same thing happens on that drive.

Finally, you might also try booting into safe mode to see if this also happens there.

Not sure but maybe check the hard disk for errors
chkdsk C: /F /R

The system disk will have to be checked after a reboot.
The results will be recorded in the Windows event log.
Get-WinEvent -FilterHashTable @{logname="Application"; id="1001"}| ?{$_.providername –match "wininit"} | fl timecreated, message| out-file $home\Desktop\CHKDSKResults.txt
notepad.exe $home\Desktop\CHKDSKResults.txt

The overall status can be viewed

Get-PhysicalDisk | Sort Size | FT FriendlyName, Size, MediaType,SpindleSpeed, HealthStatus, OperationalStatus -AutoSize
Repair-Volume -driveletter C -scan

If you have done a complete reinstall the issue is likely faulting hardware or incompatible device drivers.

I would suggest testing any HDDs with SeaTools for Windows, and testing your RAM with Memtest86.

You could also check to see what drivers are available from you device manufacturer; for custom PCs, the chipset drivers from the motherboard manufacturer.

Windows Update and third-party driver apps can install the wrong drivers. So updates download from these sources might explain the reoccurrence of the issue.

Hello

Thank you all for all your helpful replies. I do have multiple drives in the system with a combination of 2 SSDs and 4 mechanical hard drives. The problem manifests itself in all drives. I will try booting into safe mode to see if that happens. I did check the hard disks for errors including the SSDs drives. The windows 11 operating system is installed in one of the SSD drives. That is a 2 TB drive from Samsung. I am hoping that I do not have any faulty hardware. The problem just happened all of a sudden not long after windows was updated to Version 24H2. All my device drivers are current. Only one problem that surfaced after I reinstalled Windows, my webcam drivers failed to install, so I cannot use my webcam. Then I removed the webcam drivers from my system. I did not see any other failed device drivers in my system while using the Device Manager.

Thanks again you all for your suggestions.

Hello

I have good news about my Windows 11 Explorer issue being resolved last night. I want to share it, just in case someone else has the same issue. First, I want to thank all of you that responded for my request for help. Without your help, it would have taken me longer to figure out what was wrong. I use Acronis True Image 2021 in my systems, so I can backup my system in case of system problems. It has helped me a great deal over the years whenever I needed it. I checked my main Windows partition for disk errors or corruption using chkdsk and whatever windows tool I could use. I did not find any errors. I tried to boot Windows in Safe Mode and then Windows would not allow me to log in because it gave me the error that it could not find my pin and needed to go to the Internet to receive it. That was impossible since I used Safe Mode without Networking. That gave me the clue that my UEFI partition was corrupted. Unfortunately, most free tools won't allow you to check hidden partitions like the UEFI partition. So I decided to recover my UEFI partition from my backup that I had saved with Acronis True Image. After I recovered it, my system is back to normal. In fact I used the system most of the night without any issues. The problem I had was a corrupted UEFI partition. When windows booted up after recovery, I noticed that the system was taking longer than usual to boot up and then the pin login showed up as usual without any problems.

Again thanks very much for your suggestions, they helped me a great deal to get my troubleshooting mind back into gear.

Best regards