In a move that no longer seems even remotely surprising, a recent update to Windows 11 has introduced a new bug. While this one is fairly innocuous compared to others in recent times, dark mode users might want to be a touch wary about opening up File Explorer. That’s because in some cases, the window will go completely white upon opening, effectively flashbanging you, CS-style.
It hardly seems fair, does it? Here I am, searching through the world of tech to report on the latest news, trends, and events and Microsoft, once again, serves it to me on a plate. Well, The Verge holds that honour, as this is where I learned about the File Explorer bug in Microsoft’s KB5070311 update for Windows 11.
As is the norm in such update reports, the description of the issue tries to downplay the problem a tad: “After installing KB5070311, you might experience issues when opening File Explorer in dark mode. The window might briefly display a blank white screen before loading files and folders.”
But that’s not the only scenario where Windows 11 will try to make you see stars: “This can also occur when you: Navigate to or from Home or Gallery (including launching to Home); Create a new tab; Turn the Details pane on or off; Select More details while copying files.”
Being the intrepid hardware writer that I am, I installed KB5070311 on my main rig to see if I could replicate the File Explorer flashbang. Well, as you can see, I’m one of the lucky ones, though it’s worth noting that the flash doesn’t always trigger. In fact, opening up File Explorer, either directly or via adding extra tabs, sometimes doesn’t generate any kind of problem.
I use a 32-inch OLED monitor as my primary display, and I can tell you now, having something that size suddenly blaze white is more than a bit distracting. Setting to File Explorer to full screen is not recommended.
Now, I’ve tested the Windows 11 update on all my test rigs, so I don’t know whether it’s specific to a particular hardware and driver combination, or whether anyone and everyone is going to get flashbanged in dark mode. At the time of writing, Microsoft simply says that it “is working to resolve this issue and will provide more information when it is available.”
In the meantime, if you’re fed up with being an unpaid/unrequested QA tester for Microsoft, I suggest giving Explorer++ a try. It might not be the most comprehensive of file management tools, but at least it doesn’t try to sear your retinas off, simply because you wanted to copy a file.
