Windows Explorer in Windows 7 keeps crashing and restarting

I just want to clarify that it's not "Internet Explorer" that's crashing it's the Windows Explorer (the old File Manager). I had it pinned to the taskbar so that I could access it quicker, but it would crash randomly whether inactive or active/minimized.

Oooh, sorry I didnt' get back.  I had visitors for ever, lol.

WC000111, thanks for reply, hun.  I'm going to give that a try as this is still driving me mad.

I ended up paying £23 for a bit of software that said it could fix it and did it?  Nope!  Ripped off, again, lol.

I'm a bit concerned about shifting things around as I'm still not used to this system, but will give it a go later anyway.  In for a penny and all that.....

Will make a note of your link too, xerosx.  Thanks for that.

Ok, I've done a lot over the last couple of days.  I didn't want to post until I had succeeded in some manner or another.  I went to the Microsoft Techs and have been trying things with them.

Something I've been doing a lot of lately is downloading and working with various media files through RealPlayer.  I did some checking into the "Reliability Logs" in the 'Action Center', which can be found in the 'Control Panel'.  You go to the 'Maintenance" section and click on 'View Reliability History'.  The next screen you come to has a graph with vertical sections for the days.  You can see any or none of 3 icons - a red circle with an X (for 'Critical Events', a yellow triangle with an exclamation point (for "Warnings"), and a blue circle with an "i" in it (for Informational Events).  Choose the day that things have been going on, the restarts or shut downs or whatever.  Click to highlight the vertical column corresponding with the day and look down in the box below.  It will list the events that have occurred in order.  Click on "View Technical Details" to get the tech stuff.  Glance through it.  Even if you can't understand most of it, something might stand out to you.  In my case, it was "Real Player".  I started checking the history from other days and found the same errors.  Therefore, it had to be related to the Real Player.

I installed, uninstalled, reinstalled, updated, petted and cooed at the Real Player program trying to get it to work right.  No luck.  I sent the tech info to the lady who was helping at Microsoft, and she confirmed that it was the Real Player.  I finally gave up and sent her a report back as to whether the uninstall and install had worked, and asked if there was another media program that I could get that would do what Real Player does and that at this point, I'd be happy to pay for it.  I have yet to get a response; HOWEVER, I accidentally came across something else in my exploring!!

I ran into a section of reports in "Control Panel" -- "Administrative Tools" --  "Event Viewer" in the "Summary of Administrative Events" window.  I did a right click on the "Warnings" section and chose "View All Instances of This Event".   I had to have sat here for an hour or so before my very slow brain started realizing a commonality. 

Underneath the header "Source" I found the title "User Profile Service", the "Event ID" was '1530', and the 'Task Category' was 'None'.

All of these made the same comments in regard to a registry error.  Registry leaked.  Or was still in use by other apps.  Here is a copy of the details on mine.

"""""""Windows detected your registry file is still in use by other applications or services. The file will be unloaded now. The applications or services that hold your registry file may not function properly afterwards. 

 DETAIL -

 5 user registry handles leaked from \Registry\User\S-1-5-21-956409622-4081334785-806588618-1000:

Process 524 (\Device\HarddiskVolume2\Windows\System32\lsass.exe) has opened key \REGISTRY\USER\S-1-5-21-956409622-4081334785-806588618-1000

Process 524 (\Device\HarddiskVolume2\Windows\System32\lsass.exe) has opened key \REGISTRY\USER\S-1-5-21-956409622-4081334785-806588618-1000

Process 524 (\Device\HarddiskVolume2\Windows\System32\lsass.exe) has opened key \REGISTRY\USER\S-1-5-21-956409622-4081334785-806588618-1000\Software\Microsoft\SystemCertificates\My

Process 524 (\Device\HarddiskVolume2\Windows\System32\lsass.exe) has opened key \REGISTRY\USER\S-1-5-21-956409622-4081334785-806588618-1000\Software\Microsoft\SystemCertificates\CA

Process 524 (\Device\HarddiskVolume2\Windows\System32\lsass.exe) has opened key \REGISTRY\USER\S-1-5-21-956409622-4081334785-806588618-1000\Software\Microsoft\SystemCertificates\Disallowed   """""""

I still don't really understand what most of it means, but it did say to me that something was going on with the registry.

I've got TuneUp Utilities and it found no problems.  I wasn't satisfied.  The error reports were right there!

I used to use Uniblue Registry Booster till I upgraded.  I figured TuneUp did the same thing so why have both?  So, I put Uniblue back on and ran it....it found 756 errors in the registry!!!  It ran its fix and...I haven't had any trouble since then!

I've still got Real Player and I've been doing everything I could to get windows explorer to restart on me, but it hasn't done so!

So...I'm not saying it's your registry, but I am saying take a look in those spots I outlined and see if anything is said about the registry or about a program you recognize.  If so, that should point you in the right direction and give you a much better idea as to what is really going on!!

The 'Libraries' function correctly now...everything does.  It's at least worth a try!