File explorer not responding in Windows 11. It opens up but becomes unresponsive when you click anywhere.

Anonymous
2024-01-20T21:46:04+00:00

I tried every solution available on the internet to make file explorer responsive. However, it is not working. I open up file explorer, it opens. Now, when I click any folder or any icon or try to do search, it becomes unresponsive. I have spent days trying to fix this and I am very frustrated with this. Can any Samaritan

help me with this?

Kind Regards,

Sajan

Windows for home | Windows 11 | Files, folders, and storage

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  1. Anonymous
    2025-05-08T08:19:12+00:00

    I have tried all the suggestions and none have worked permanently for me. Often they seem to solve the problem until I shutdown then start my computer again normally. Explorer++ is a good option. Whenever I start explorer it hangs, usually with a blank black window. Then my desktop goes black too. Using the task manager is not an option as explorer will not respond to that either.

    Can anyone tell me why the following makes all the difference in my case:

    Starting my computer normally, explorer will hang when I try to use it and the computer becomes unresponsive.

    Starting my computer by pressing the 'hard reset' button on the computer case solves the problem completely and everything runs perfectly.

    I do not wish to start my computer followed by pressing the hard reset button every time. What could be going on that is affected this way? Any ideas? And only explorer is affected by a normal startup. Other computers running 23H2 (not 24H2 work fine for me).

    Gary

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  2. Anonymous
    2025-05-08T09:39:45+00:00

    The real solution is giving up Windows, except maybe for gaming...

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  3. Anonymous
    2025-05-08T14:34:08+00:00

    Thanks Pedro,

    I am actually a convert from Mac to PC just for gaming as the hardware is cheaper. Hahaha. So much for that.

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  4. Anonymous
    2025-07-03T23:31:33+00:00

    This worked for me but I had to use cmd prompt (administrator / elevated permissions) to do the same.. windows explorer was not opening even when run through Windows + R.

    I had to run the below commands.

    cd /d "%APPDATA%\Microsoft\Windows\Recent\AutomaticDestinations"

    del /f /q *.*

    cd /d "%APPDATA%\Microsoft\Windows\Recent\CustomDestinations"

    del /f /q *.*

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    5 people found this answer helpful.
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