[SOLVED] 'Open with' causes explorer to hang. [FIXED]

[axel f]

Whenever I right click on any file and hover the cursor over "open with" my explore just hangs and requires a restart from task manager.

This problem just came out of no where because I made no changes to the system nor downloaded anything prior to this happening. One night everything was fine and then the very next day after waking the system from sleep mode I noticed all the desktop icons were white sheets. After rebooting the system and trying to continue some work on a image file the explorer would just crash the moment I clicked on the file. Right clicking and hovering over "create new folder" also caused explore to crash. A discord user I spoke to said reinstalling video drivers solved the issue for them so I tried that. I uninstalled my GPU drivers in safe mode then reinstalled after a reboot. I can now right click and create new folders but "open with" still crashes explore.

I've also tried changing display options,
online restore health,
sfc /scan,
ran virus scans,
disabled menus in shellview, and uninstalled the few programs that were on the list.
rolled back to several weeks old system restore points,
deleted bags in regedit,
removed windows 10 photo app,
Ran in safe mode,
ran CCleaner,
Checked hard drive health and physically removed the drive that bad sectors.
updated windows,

Everything else functions without issue. Movies and software run normally. Everything else works fine.
Is there any explanation to what is causing this?

 

[Colif]

which version of win 10?
right click start
choose run...
type winver and press enter
current version is 20H2.

if you aren't on it, try updating

If you are on it, try a repair install - https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/16397-repair-install-windows-10-place-upgrade.html

Have you tried making another user and see if it still happens?
create a local user - https://www.tomshardware.com/how-to/create-local-account-windows-10
make it admin
logon to it and see if command fails to work still.
Just checking if its your user at fault

 

[axel f]

which version of win 10?
right click start
choose run...
type winver and press enter
current version is 20H2.

if you aren't on it, try updating

If you are on it, try a repair install - https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/16397-repair-install-windows-10-place-upgrade.html

Have you tried making another user and see if it still happens?
create a local user - https://www.tomshardware.com/how-to/create-local-account-windows-10
make it admin
logon to it and see if command fails to work still.
Just checking if its your user at fault

I just noticed another issue. The green bar at the top of the window will move extremely slow and opening "my computer" directly comes up with no results.

Yes I am currently on Windows 10, version 20H2 . I will try a repair install now.

Earlier I did create a second account with administrator privilege's and I did not have any issues with my explore, the problem went away but when I launched programs I had no access to my saved data and profiles. Also after repeating some of the previous solutions I tried before I can now get "open with" to work in safe mode.

 

[Colif]

safe mode....
Try a clean boot and see if it changes anything - make sure to read instructions and make sure NOT to disable any microsoft services or windows won't load right - https://support.microsoft.com/en-au/help/929135/how-to-perform-a-clean-boot-in-windows

if clean boot fixes it, it shows its likely a startup program. You should, over a number of startups. restart the programs you stopped to isolate the one that is to blame.

Otherwise,
on the normal user, go to c:/users/Normal user name
copy the contents of this folder onto new user's folder
this gives it the same access.
Use new user, Windows 10 users can sometimes go bad, replacing them isn't that hard

 

[axel f]

I found the culprit.
After creating a new user profile and copying over files the problem came back. I was able to narrow it down to a MKV video file that was sitting on my desktop. I uploaded it weeks ago and never had issues with it until now. for some reason I was not able to delete it or move it. Every time I hovered the cursor over it explorer would hang. It even hung in safe mode and caused other programs such as file shredder to crash. I just coped everything else from the desktop and deleted my old user account.
Everything seems to be working in order now.

Thanks for the assistance.