Windows 11 Browse For Folder Dialog Issue - Only Desktop

Thanks. OneDrive seems to be the culprit. The workaround is to stop syncing your Desktop folder with OneDrive.

Important: Before proceeding, copy the files in those special folders to another folder or external drive. Please don’t copy them anywhere under Desktop/Documents/Pictures. This is because disabling OneDrive backup for a folder erases the local copies of the files. Copying them to a different location beforehand will ensure that you don’t need to download them again from the OneDrive cloud.

 

1. Right-click the OneDrive icon in the Notification area and click Settings.
2. Select the Backup tab, and click Manage Backup
3. In the Manage folder backup dialog, click on the Stop backup link for "Desktop"
4. Click Stop backup in the confirmation dialog that appears.

Your analysis is correct. Turning off the sync of Desktop resolved the problem. I did not need desktop sync to OneDrive, and I had forgotten it was on. I will note though that my OneDrive configuration has not changed for months so it is likely there is a very recent Windows software change that exposed this problem. It was not obvious to me that OneDrive configuration would have been a factor in this problem.

Thank you for your original script suggestion and then your analysis and solution for this problem!!!!

Thanks. OneDrive seems to be the culprit. The workaround is to stop syncing your Desktop folder with OneDrive.

Important: Before proceeding, copy the files in those special folders to another folder or external drive. Please don’t copy them anywhere under Desktop/Documents/Pictures. This is because disabling OneDrive backup for a folder erases the local copies of the files. Copying them to a different location beforehand will ensure that you don’t need to download them again from the OneDrive cloud.

1. Right-click the OneDrive icon in the Notification area and click Settings.
2. Select the Backup tab, and click Manage Backup
3. In the Manage folder backup dialog, click on the Stop backup link for "Desktop"
4. Click Stop backup in the confirmation dialog that appears.

Thanks. Can you run a ProcMon trace (while running the script file), save the PML log (all events), zip it, and upload the trace to your OneDrive? I'll compare it with my trace. Instructions: Start ProcMon trace, then run the script file. Once the browse dialog appears, switch to ProcMon and stop the trace.

Zipped log file for the trace.

https://1drv.ms/u/s!AszYG_5La9y8je0ARw6ZfIloAb6Mqw?e=qQfeFq

If there is a way to filter this trace to limit it to the script file execution, I will do that. I did close all the applications that I could before performing the capture.