[SOLVED] Explorer.exe crashing when opening from taskbar, right clicking, and copying/moving

khodex1997

Distinguished
Sep 26, 2013
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18,545
So this started out as me having some windows file corruption. Sfc couldn't fix it and dism couldn't locate source. I downloaded the windows media creation tool and downloaded an iso and copied the install.esd to my external drive and extracted windows 10 pro from it to install.wim. Dism still couldn't locate source even with me pointing it to that file. I believe I restarted and then tried copying it to my C: drive instead of my external drive like the guide I was following said. (Don't know why I didnt do that in the first place.) and then I realized I couldn't copy anything to my C: drive. Windows was telling me I didn't have the right permissions. I restarted and still couldn't do it so I used cmd to copy it there and re-extract and re-do dism. it still failed to locate source. I believe around this point I had noticed windows explorer was being buggy and kept crashing and restarting when I tried to open a new window via taskbar. I could still open them via folders on my desktop and use the sidebar to navigate. I didn't notice right clicking caused it until I was googling for a solution and someone said right clicking caused it so I tried to see if it did the same. I tried safe mode and it was doing the same thing. Eventually I tried safe mode with networking and dism succeeded and I ran sfc after and it fixed corrupt files. Things were looking up. I did dism with checkhealth and scanhealth to double check. I even scheduled a chkdsk /F on that reboot. when I got into windows though explorer was still crashing the same. sfc and dism don't detect corruption. The only thing I installed recently was a client for ffxiv. Haven't installed anything with shell extensions for a while that I know of. I have a few event viewer entries I will attach but I am not adept with using event viewer.

I have an ssd with windows on it and a hdd with games and some programs on it. I would like to avoid reinstalling windows if possible. my drives are in good health according to crystaldiskinfo. Thank you for any help!
View: https://i.imgur.com/QOQStvT.png

View: https://i.imgur.com/2Hh6nAQ.png

View: https://i.imgur.com/IGncYKV.png

View: https://i.imgur.com/r4Xu2V0.png

View: https://i.imgur.com/jP25BdE.png
 
Solution
Your first Event Viewer screenshot clearly shows that the WinRAR shell extension caused Explorer to crash. Uninstall WinRAR then restart your computer by choosing RESTART from the power menu.

If that fixes the issue and you never use that program then leave things as they are or download the latest stable version.

Secret-Squirrel

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Sep 12, 2020
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Your first Event Viewer screenshot clearly shows that the WinRAR shell extension caused Explorer to crash. Uninstall WinRAR then restart your computer by choosing RESTART from the power menu.

If that fixes the issue and you never use that program then leave things as they are or download the latest stable version.
 
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Solution

khodex1997

Distinguished
Sep 26, 2013
88
2
18,545
Your first Event Viewer screenshot clearly shows that the WinRAR shell extension caused Explorer to crash. Uninstall WinRAR then restart your computer by choosing RESTART from the power menu.

If that fixes the issue and you never use that program then leave things as they are or download the latest stable version.

That worked!!!! Thank you so much! I wish I knew why it started doing that all of a sudden. I havent updated winrar or anything and it was working fine just a few days ago. oh well. I will have to get a new version! Thank you so much!

P.S. Secret-Squirrel was an awesome show. I respect your choice of a profile.