Windows Explorer in Windows 7 keeps crashing and restarting

Anonymous
2009-11-26T02:42:50+00:00

It happens at random times...but conveniently after a Windows update. I'll be looking up a file...or trying to delete a file, then all of a sudden, i see the little progress bar thing and it's closing Explorer, then that goes away and another one shows up saying "Restarting Windows Explorer"...I've ran a few virus scans in case it's a virus...but I don't think that's the case.

Oh and I noticed that a lot of the problems reported were from people that upgraded to Windows 7...my laptop is a new computer that came pre-loaded with Windows 7.

Anyone else in my shoes? Does anyone know if Microsoft is working on this issue?

*original title - Windows Explorer in Windows 7 keeps crashing...then trying to restart...anyone else have that problem? Anyone know if Microsoft is working on an update or something to fix it?*

Windows for home | Previous Windows versions | Windows update

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

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Anonymous
2010-01-15T17:15:30+00:00

Just in case you haven't fixed this issue yet. I had the exact same problem and found a pretty fast and painless solution. I can't tell you why it was happening, but the fix worked. And it didn't involve disabling my video card drivers (make NO sense, doing this would pretty much make your video card useless...not an option for me when I bought a $600 video card).

Navigate to this folder (assuming your Windows is installed on your C:\ drive):

C:\Windows <- Inside this folder you should find the file "explorer.exe". Select that and press "CTRL+C" (this will copy the file, do NOT cut, just copy).

Then paste the copied file into:

C:\Windows\System32

And like magic, no more explorer crashing :). Hope that helps!

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Anonymous
2009-11-27T01:08:13+00:00

Hi SonyBoy_Fusion,Welcome to Microsoft Windows 7 Answers Forum! 

Method 1

Please check whether you face the same issue while working in the safe mode.

Step 1 Safe Mode

  1. Restart your computer.
  2. When the computer starts you will see your computer's hardware being listed. When you see this information start to gently tap the F8 key on your keyboard repeatedly until you are presented with the Windows 7 Advanced Boot Options screen.
  3. Using the arrow keys, select the Safe Mode option you want.
  4. Then press the enter key on your keyboard to boot into Windows 7 Safe Mode.
  5. When Windows starts you will be at a typical logon screen. Logon to your computer and Windows 7 will enter Safe mode.
  6. Do whatever tasks you require, and when you are done, reboot to go back into normal mode.

Steps 2. Clean Boot

If the issue existed in Safe Mode perform Clean Boot troubleshooting to find the root cause of  the issue:

Clean Boot Troubleshooting:

  1. Click Start, type msconfig in the Start Search box, and then press ENTER.

   User Account Control permission.

   If you are prompted for an administrator password or for a confirmation, type the

   password, Or click Continue.

  1. On the General tab, click Selective Startup.
  2. Under Selective Startup, click to clear the Load Startup items check box.
  3. Click the Services tab, click to select the Hide All Microsoft Services check box, and then click Disable All.
  4. Click OK.
  5. When you are prompted, click Restart.
  6. After the computer starts, check whether the problem is resolved.

If the issue is resolved check which third party is causing the problem, referring the link given below:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/929135

  1. Also you need to uninstall and reinstall the problem software on your computer.

Reset the computer to start as usual  

  1. After you have finished troubleshooting, follow these steps to reset the computer to start as usual:

Click Start, type msconfig.exe in the Start Search box, and then press ENTER. 

  1. If you are prompted for an administrator password or for confirmation, type your password, or click Continue. On the General tab, click the Normal Startup option, and then click OK.  
  2. When you are prompted to restart the computer, click Restart.

**Method 2.**I would also recommend you to run online Virus Scan to remove any infections, if present.

Follow the link below to run the free online scan:

http://onecare.live.com/site/en-us/default.htm

The following thread discusses about removing viruses and malware online:

http://social.answers.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/vistasecurity/thread/ba80504b-61f1-4d71-960f-b561798b7b42

Hope it helps. 

Thanks and Regards:

**Shekhar S - Microsoft Support.**Visit our Microsoft Answers Feedback Forum

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121 additional answers

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  1. Anonymous
    2010-12-05T16:41:45+00:00

    Great solution it worked for me .....

             I disabled nvidia's experience service and problem solved :D

    @ Microsoft 

            Please give pictorial solution ... we are not PhD in computers ( i am instrumentation engg) .... thank you for windows 7 ...

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  2. Anonymous
    2010-12-17T07:15:43+00:00

    This resembles a similar problem in vista where Explorer crashed and reloaded when it failed to render a thumbnail view of a video file for which it had no compatable codec.

    The crash occurred when attempting to open a folder containing the offending video file and if the file was on the desktop, the crash and reload cycle started immediately on starting windows.

    Because the thumbnail for a video file is a frame from the video, windows/explorer must be able to render a frame to use and if it can't because it does not have the correct codec, explorer crashes.

    I don't know wether this problem was ever fixed or wether it was worked around in some way because I never had the problem to experiment with.

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  3. Anonymous
    2010-12-25T07:26:45+00:00

    The EXACT problem in my case are real media video (.rm) files - explorer crashes trying to thumbnail them.  It's really unbelievable that they write code this crappy.  In the first place their thumnailing engine is using the extention to determine the codec instead of looking at the headers in the file like good meida players do.  So I don't know about WMP cause its a joke too, if you use KMPLAYER or SMPLAYER here is what you can do:

    1 - Disable thumbs in icons by opening folder option (Organize menu) and clicking the first option to not show them - now you can get into the offending folder (see below if you were unlucky enough to put one on your desktop folder) and rename the file from .rm (or whatever the offending file is) to some other media extension (like .mpg).  Explorer being so stupid will now reject that file and not thumb it so you can now turn on thumbnailing again and life will be OK until the next one.  The above players will play the file just fine with the wrong extension.

    2 - If the file is on your desktop - bend over and kiss your pc goodbye Or - boot up in safe mode and use DOS to nav to your /user/name/desktop folder and do a del or rn of that files extension if you really want to save it.

    Microsoft - how about a fix for not crashing on .rm files that play just fine.  Or for that matter figure out WHY its crashing or do that stuff in a separate process.

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