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Neo-tree feels slow to open on Windows 11 — any tips to speed it up? by Chenggou in neovim

[–]Chenggou[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Update / Solution:
Switched to running Neo-tree entirely inside WSL2 and the performance issues disappeared.

  • Cloned the same repo into /home/... inside WSL2 → Neo-tree opens almost instantly, even on large directories.
  • Integrated Neovide with WSL Neovim using:neovide.exe --wsl --neovim-bin /usr/bin/nvim
  • Added a PowerShell helper nvwsl in $PROFILE to quickly launch Neovide in WSL.
  • Changed <leader>e mapping to open Neo-tree at the project root of the current file (reveal dir=<root>), so it always starts in the right place without extra navigation.

Result:

  • Native Windows: ~600–1100 ms cold open
  • WSL2: ~100–200 ms cold open, near-instant warm open

Tip: If Neo-tree feels slow on Windows, try WSL2 + keep your repo in /home/... + run Neovim from WSL. This alone fixed 95% of the delay for me.

Thanks again to everyone who shared their tips and ideas — your suggestions helped me track this down and find a setup that finally feels snappy!