Windows Update KB4579311 causing explorer to crash repeatedly when logging in.

I've had multiple live chats with support team members and they all confirmed this is a known issue and will likely be fixed on the next windows cumulative update.

I have my doubts over how true that is, but I'm hoping this would indeed be the case and we won't reach a 4th month without a functioning update.

Nevermind then, I contacted support again to double check and this time they told me this is not a known issue, so that was a lie. That's unfortunate.

It seems we have no other option but try to solve this ourselves. I am assuming I am not the only one who is not happy to clean reinstall windows for the issue to possibly just come back after restoring data.

Currently, I've seen a few people had luck fixing this by uninstalling a specific xbox game, could the person who realized this possibly elaborate on how they figured this out, so others can find their specific problematic app?

Also, would be happy to know if anyone figured out something else in the meantime.

By the way, if anyone created a Feedback Hub ticket regarding this, would probably be a good idea to share it here so people who experience the problem upvote it.

Thanks so much @Frestlay! After spending hours reinstalling different versions of Nvidia drivers and disabling 3rd party apps, this resolved my issue. I'm hoping Microsoft takes responsibility and comes up with a fix, but I'm keeping that service disabled and updates paused until they do.

I also had this issue and although uninstalling KB4579311 worked I found that disabling the "Storage Service" service also stopped explorer from repeatedly crashing after logging in (I forgot where I found this suggestion, but thanks to that person). Not a complete fix, but it might help if you'd like to not keep pausing updates.

Instructions:

1. Open services.msc. With explorer repeatedly crashing you might have to do this by opening Task Manager from Ctrl+Alt+Del, clicking the Services tab, right clicking one of the items and click Open Services.
   • Alternatively, I did it by rebooting into Safe Mode. Ctrl+Alt+Del, press the power icon, hold Shift and click restart. Then click Troubleshoot > Advanced Settings >Startup Options. Once you've rebooted into Safe Mode, you can press Start and type "services".
2. Scroll to "Storage Service" and right click > Properties.
3. In Startup Type select Disabled. I tried Manual but Windows started the service at startup anyway.

@Frestlay thanks for the suggestion on disabling Storage Service via services console - this does appear to prevent the problem on my machine from occurring at every restart. Are there any known issues with keeping this disabled?

I would ideally like to uninstall the KB but as others have found, it appears to be "baked in" to the OS and impossible to remove. I am starting to wonder if I shouldn't just do a clean install, but I'd really like to avoid the hassle!

I would add that this only happens on the first login after start/restart. After about 6 minutes it proceeds to load as normal and I am able to logoff and back on any number of times without seeing this same fault. Only the first login after a reboot triggers this. Anyone else confirm this? Waiting on the fix.

Hi, navigate to the control panel. Add remove programs. Then on the left it should say "view installed updates".

Once there you should be able right click and uninstall, or click it once and then click the uninstall button that is revealed above.