Windows 11 zipped folders / files immediately crashes File Explorer

Anonymous
2022-01-24T04:24:45+00:00

My Dell laptop was previously Windows 10, now 11. When I right click any zipped folder, it immediately crashes Windows Explorer, but then everything comes back. I can't unzip any zipped file at all - doesn't seem to matter what size it is.

I was trying to use the built-in unzipper utility in Windows, and when that didn't work I tried a couple 3rd party apps, including WinZip. Nothing works; they all crash, and they crash on ANY zipped file I have.

And by the way if I try to ZIP any set of files - even just 3 little word files, it does the same thing. The screen flashes, all my icons go away for a second. Then things come back, but nothing will zip or unzip.

thanks if you have any ideas!

Christine

Windows for home | Windows 11 | Performance and system failures

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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  1. Anonymous
    2023-12-29T18:14:05+00:00

    Hi. Thank you. Still no luck for me.

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  2. Anonymous
    2023-12-21T22:14:41+00:00

    I was having similar problems on a brand new Dell XPS 9530. ANY click on a ZIP file ... or even entering a folder containing a ZIP file ... would crash Windows Explorer. After seeing a number of posts on this and other forums, I checked what applications I had installed that did anything with ZIP files.

    It appears that the app causing DLL conflicts is Avenquest PowerDesk 9. Using a clean minimum Win11 virtual machine in VMWarePro17, I confirmed that clicking on a ZIP file in Windows Explorer caused no problems. I then Installed PowerDesk 9 ... and when I restarted the VM, Windows Explorer crashed when clicking on a ZIP file. Removing PowerDesk 9 eliminated the problem.

    I don't know if this will help anyone else, but for any that are using PowerDesk 9, uninstalling it will solve the problem.

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  3. Anonymous
    2023-12-15T20:13:50+00:00

    Hi

    I wondering if you could write out what you did step by step please. I use CS4 mostly for the Acrobat. What a nuisance problem! I wish Adobe could address it.

    L

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  4. Anonymous
    2023-12-13T21:58:56+00:00

    This is still happening no matter what type of zip app created it. I just zipped using Win 11 and it crashed explorer and then recovered. There is no rhyme nor reason. All my drivers are current.

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  5. Anonymous
    2023-05-15T03:51:43+00:00

    After trying dnsflush trick, it was unfortunately not a long fix.

    Then I follow this : Maybe there is a broken shell extension? Download shellexview from nirsoft and disable extensions that weren't created by microsoft. Then restart explorer and test for problem. If the problem is fixed enable extensions one by one until you find the culprit.

    I then find the culprit was PDF24 for me. Uninstall and reinstalled et voila !!!

    Hope this can help to solve your problem, fixing this was not long at all with shellxview.

    I believe shellexview and disable problematic shell extensions is currently the only solution.

    Microsoft should have a look into this issue, it is not caused by a single software or single extension.

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