Windows 10 Explorer freezes when selecting word file

Anonymous
2018-02-18T07:56:01+00:00

Hi,

My brand new laptop with  configuration 16GB RAM,128GB SSD,2TB HDDn  getting stuck/freeze randomly at least one time a day.

Tried following fixes

  1. clean boot

2.Memory error check

  1. Trouble shooter

4.Power troubleshooter

5.Updated all drivers

and many

Any solution to this weird issue? 

Thanks

Anoop

Microsoft 365 and Office | Word | For home | Windows

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.

0 comments
Answer accepted by question author
Anonymous
2018-10-11T19:35:24+00:00

Like many of us, I've tried the fixes on the support pages at the top of the G**gle search results today, then tried adding 'Word' to the mix and hoorah, I'm not the only one! (*Sorry Bing - your daily pictures are great, though!)

Turning off the 2 ancillary panes completely fixed the problem and I was FINALLY able to delete the word file I'd been trying to drag to the trash for an hour. Thanks to everyone trying to once again provide a fix.

To anyone not sure of how to do this, open File Explorer (or any folder) and click on 'View' at the top. On the left side you'll see the Navigation pane setting and to the right of it Preview pane and Details pane. It seems like you have a choice of which pane to choose, but actually you don't have to have one at all - clicking selects one but clicking it again deselects it. And if you set your view option to 'Details' your contents will be in list view with the details to the right. The only annoyance is a lack of a preview. I guess that beats FREEZING every time one touches a Microsoft Word file.

Sure do miss the Metered Connection fix to block the updates...

Was this answer helpful?

300+ people found this answer helpful.
0 comments

55 additional answers

Sort by: Most helpful
Most helpful Newest Oldest
  1. Anonymous
    2018-09-03T15:54:39+00:00

    A workaround is to select Preview Pane(Instead of Details Pane) from View menu of File Explorer.

    Was this answer helpful?

    10+ people found this answer helpful.
    0 comments
  2. Anonymous
    2018-09-07T11:52:36+00:00

    Just started to use a brand new Lenovo ThinkPad E580 with W10 Pro / i5-8250U 8th gen. Pre-installed MS Office 2016 pro plus with legitimate license (I just entered my license key that I bought into the pre-installed MS office 2016 - very convenient).

    Same thing here: in Windows File Explorer pointing on Word or Excel file, File Explorer freezes. This does not happen with PDF files, for example.

    Workaround that works:

    File Explorer -> View -> Preview pane (instead of Details pane, then it freezes).

    Or, just turn off the preview or detail pane in File Explorer and you are all set.

    I really do not like drastic solutions as reinstalling Office or even Windows, which I am not certain that it would even work.

    Microsoft should fix this bug, I think.

    Update:

    Windows File Explorer does not freeze with Word files saved in old 97-2003 format (.doc extension). It freezes by just selecting .docx and .xlsx office files in File Explorer.

    Was this answer helpful?

    4 people found this answer helpful.
    0 comments
  3. Anonymous
    2018-07-05T08:25:18+00:00

    I am having the same problem as everyone else on this thread.

    I am using a K570UD, which I literally just got 1 week ago.

    I do not want to uninstall Word, as I need it for school work, but it's practically useless to me right now while this issue persists.

    I'm going to attempt to get a screen-capture video of the issue in action to see if that helps with diagnosing the problem.

    UPDATE:

    Here's that link - https://drive.google.com/open?id=1n4QE2mW6WxBaN\_SWbWU\_7c6\_WazkPa81

    I should note that if I manually terminate the COM process under WORD, Windows Explorer unfreezes.  Of course if the Word doc is still selected, it will freeze right back up again.

    This is a snippet of conversation from a Discord chat with a friend:

    "it might havew something to do with the COM surrogate process Word opens up, that tends to use a lot RAM for some reason. Try killing that sub process, and if you can open office itself, then With a Microsoft Office program open, click the "File" tab from the top menu bar > click "Options" from the menu on the left. Under the "General" tab (in Office 2007, the "Popular" tab), click to deselect the "Enable Live Preview" checkbox. Click [OK]."

    That got rid of those two processes that show up briefly when I first click on the doc.  But it still freezes.

    Was this answer helpful?

    3 people found this answer helpful.
    0 comments
  4. Anonymous
    2018-03-02T04:55:55+00:00

    I'm facing the same issue with my HP spectre 16GB configuration which i bought last week. I faced this issue even before installing any antivirus software.  I tried office 2013 & 2016 and both hangs in opening the file.  I tried updating windows 10 and also tried updating most  recent updates of windows Office . The windows explorer is freezing if I just select the file using mouse, i don't have to open the file to cause the freeze, really driving me crazy. Please provide me a solution to this problem

    Was this answer helpful?

    2 people found this answer helpful.
    0 comments