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TheYeager
Inspiring
July 15, 2025
Question

Adobe Photoshop creates lag in Windows Explorer

  • July 15, 2025
  • 1 reply
  • 266 views

Anytime I need to navgiate Windows Explorer in Photoshop (like if I'm saving or importing a file) I am met with incredible lag. Other Adobe apps like Premiere Pro and After Effects do not do this. 

Windows 10 Pro, 64GB RAM, Intel Core i7-9700F, Nvida Titan X 12GB

1 reply

creative explorer
Community Expert
Community Expert
July 15, 2025

@TheYeager it might be an accumulation of temporary files, especially within the C:\Users\[your user name]\AppData\Local\Temp directory, which Photoshop heavily utilizes for its scratch disk operations and internal processes. While your system boasts ample RAM and a powerful GPU, a congested temp folder or a conflict with other background applications (like certain font managers or even antivirus software) can bottleneck Photoshop's ability to quickly access and interact with the file system. To address this, regularly clear your temporary files by typing %temp% into the Windows search bar and deleting the contents of the opened folder, ensure your Photoshop preferences (Edit > Preferences > Performance) are optimized with sufficient RAM allocation (typically 70-85% of your 64GB) and appropriate Cache Levels, and consider temporarily disabling any third-party font management tools or real-time antivirus scans to see if they are interfering with Photoshop's file handling. 

Speaking from experience, this was one of my issues with Illustrator as I work inIllustrator all the time. The worse case scenario, is manually deleting the Preferences folder. Don't worry, once you restart your computer, a new Preferences folder will be created. Mine went from 17 gigs to 384kb! 

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TheYeager
TheYeagerAuthor
Inspiring
July 16, 2025

@creative explorer Thank you for your suggestions! I just deleted everything out of my Temp directory and my RAM allocation is set to 70%, unfortunately I am still having the issue. I also updated my GPU drivers. I don't have any third-party add-ons for PS, or antivirus. 

Where is the Preferences folder located that you mentioned you deleted? I didn't see one off hand when I dove into the Adobe Photoshop program files.

Inspiring
July 16, 2025

User setting folder location: C:\Users\[your username]\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop 2025\Adobe Photoshop 2025 Settings

 

Dont just delete it, make a backup first in case it doesnt actually help. But even if it does help you can still bring some of the settings back like actions panel, workspaces/keyboard shortcuts