Explorer.EXE This file does not have an app associated with it for performing this action.

Anonymous
2023-09-26T09:11:15+00:00

Hi all, if you have been getting this image/pop up

Explorer.EXE This file does not have an app associated with it for performing this action. Please install an app or, if one is already installed, create an association in the Default Apps Settings page.

We are pretty sure it is due to OneDrive.

What the issue is with it - we are not sure - any ideas on how to fix this, that would be great!

Once we find a fix, I will mark as solution so others can take a look and see

Thanks,

Microsoft 365 and Office | OneDrive | Other | Windows

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  1. Anonymous
    2024-05-18T12:34:18+00:00

    This problem just started with me today.

    But I only have one Microsoft Personal 365 account with OneDrive sync turned on for my laptop. I don't have any business accounts logged in.

    Any solutions?

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  2. Anonymous
    2024-05-21T05:59:21+00:00

    It is getting worse. This appeared overnight. 24 of them. Normally I get 6 or 8.

    It would surely be helpful for the debugging if Microsoft would modify this error message to say which file.

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  3. Anonymous
    2024-05-22T07:13:50+00:00

    This exact same problem for me has been getting much worse over last couple of days, having started a week ago

    I have 3 x OneDrive for Business accounts and 1 x OneDrive personal accounts all synching and I'm reluctant to go through the hassle of uninstalling OD and resynching them all. And would that even fix the problem ?

    Please Microsoft, can we have some attention and advice/action on fixing this

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  4. Anonymous
    2024-05-22T09:49:20+00:00

    You're right, it would be great to have at least which file is this file.

    Anyway I managed to get rid of the message. My solution was to get autoruns from sysinternals (https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/autoruns), and to remove all strange and unwanted handlers in "explorer" tab.
    For me it was an Adobe DC handler that was the culprit.

    I removed a lot more and now the problem is not only gone, clicking or context menu appears instantly compared to seconds before... Some low level cleaning I think it would be difficult for Microsoft to solve automatically.
    They could monitor the time each click takes and report any anomalies above 1s. It would reflect problems and would force other software to improve their process. Jetbrain is doing it, monitoring for long unusual actions. For UX it is mandatory to compete with macOs for instance.

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  5. Anonymous
    2024-05-22T13:01:25+00:00

    It's an interesting theory, and others in this thread have mentioned Adobe products, but I experience this on systems which have never seen an Adobe product installed, and I used AutoRuns (excellent idea, thank you) and on at least one of my systems where I see this problem, there is nothing out-of-date or unusual about any of the Explorer AutoRuns items. So, I doubt that the root cause is specifically Adobe, although possibly there's something that Adobe software does - and other software does to - that triggers a bug in Explorer/OneDrive/Windows/Microsoft...

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