The caching mechanism of file explorer

Question

I noticed that when I open a folder containing audio files in file explorer, it slows down. I think that's because of its reading information(such as album, title, artist and so on) from the files. I also find that the next time I open that folder, the file explorer displays the information without any loading. Therefore I think the file explorer has some files to store the data it finds in the files. But after viewing the file handles of "explorer.exe" while it's loading information, I couldn't find any file seems to store the data.
Additionally, if I've selected the lists I'd like to watch while I'm viewing files in detailed info view, the next time I open that folder it will display the lists I selected before.

I'd like to know how the explorer store those data and how can I choose whether the file explorer should record the temporary data and my preferences automatically, thanks.

Please excuse that my English is not good.

Answer 1

I believe Explorer stores your view preferences for a limited number of folders in the registry under HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\Local Settings\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Shell.
I don't know that it stores any metadata of files beyond its current view. Maybe you're just experiencing a benefit from the normal OS disk caching, making subsequent views faster?

Answer 2

File Caching is done by Windows, not Explorer : File Caching