Windows 7: Explorer "Not Responding"; Freezes Up

Windows 7 is becoming unusable for me, because Windows Explorer keeps locking up. Just now I opened a folder, trying to access a drive on another computer on my network, and it froze. I often get it when using File Save As in various applications - as you can imagine, it's hard to use one's computer if you can't save files and you can't open directories!

It's not all the time, though. In the best Windows style, it drives me nuts for a day, then backs off and lets me think everything's okay for half a day or so...then comes back and screws me again.

Here's what I see in Event viewer:

The program explorer.exe version 6.1.7100.0 stopped interacting with Windows and was closed. To see if more information about the problem is available, check the problem history in the Action Center control panel.
Process ID: 1654
Start Time: 01ca36e8a38a7b9a
Termination Time: 62
Application Path: C:\Windows\explorer.exe
Report Id: 514fe92f-a2dc-11de-b1e0-001e4ce3b7b7

Just before that, I got this:

Fault bucket , type 0
Event Name: AppHangB1
Response: Not available
Cab Id: 0



Problem signature:
P1: explorer.exe
P2: 6.1.7100.0
P3: 49ee918d
P4: 26c7
P5: 257
P6:
P7:
P8:
P9:
P10:

Attached files:
C:\Users\Peter\AppData\Local\Temp\WER6B1B.tmp.appcompat.txt
C:\Users\Peter\AppData\Local\Temp\WER6B5A.tmp.WERInternalMetadata.xml

These files may be available here:
C:\Users\Peter\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\WER\ReportArchive\AppHang_explorer.exe_4c87e9b01dc359 4aa662734c46ef0e3856221d5_12837816

Analysis symbol:
Rechecking for solution: 0
Report Id: 514fe92f-a2dc-11de-b1e0-001e4ce3b7b7
Report Status: 1

After using Windows for almost a quarter of a century -- and hoping that Windows 7 was finally the fix I've been waiting for for all these years -- I'm almost ready to switch to a Mac! Please save me!!!

Peter

Given Explorer.exe hasn't been around since 1984 I think you're exaggerating

For starters:

- Does it only happen on network drive access or have you observed the exact same issue when saving to local drives?

- If it's only network drives, can you reproduce the same symptom if you boot to [safe mode + net] and try from there?

- If it also does the same thing when saving locally, what about if you boot to safe mode (without network)? Does the same thing sometimes happen?

- What antivirus are you using? Have you tried deactivating it or (even better) uninstalling it long enough to be sure whether it has any effect?

I've been using Windows -- not explorer -- for almost 25 years*, and no, I'm not exaggerating.

It's not just a network problem; just now I opened File > Save As in Word, and didn't even get a chance to pick a location before it locked up.

I'm using AVG; good idea, I'll try turning it off for a while...thanks.




*Actually it's probably been almost 24 years: wiki

Update ... I disabled AVG almost 4.5 hours ago, and things are working well so far! (BTW, AVG, it's kinda arrogant to not provide a simple way to disable your software.)

So, I guess I'm going to need another Anti-Virus system ... I'm going to run without AVG a few more hours, but it's certainly looking like AVG was killing Explorer (and various other little problems I hadn't mentioned before, such as stopping my desktop copy of ACT syncing with my Web-based copy, seem to have gone away).

Any recommendations anyone?

if you mean recommendations for av software, there are lots of threads in the 'system security' part of the forums.

fwiw, i like kaspersky 2010, although it's not free for most people.

Avira, id recommend

Yes, you can't go wrong if you you choose Avira, it's free, and it updates every day.

I used Avast Pro for several months. I purchased ti from a friend's shop.

It was pirated and the key got blacklisted after a few months. Biy was I pissed.

But I really liked the app. I like the way it handled script blocking and web page scans.

That was right about the time I installed the "RTM" and I installed AVG out of habit. No issues.

When I get my final version of Windows 7 in November, I will return to Avast Pro.

Glad to hear it, but unless you knew of a 100% reliable way to bring about the problem previously, a lack of symptoms for several hours may not be conclusive.

In fact, none of the AV vendors provide a simple way to disable their stuff - it is architecturally very difficult to do. What most people think of when they visualise their AV solution is the "pretty" UI applet they use to configure it, or even the (Win32) services installed by the app. However, it's the kernel-mode filter driver(s) that does the real work, and the UI applets/services are just a means of getting config info down to the driver. You can stop the AV services and request that it Temporarily Disable Realtime scanning in a variety of pretty ways, but in reality the user has no idea what stance the kernel-mode filter (which is still plugged into the I/O stack) has adopted. It's entirely up to the AV vendor to provide their own definition of what "disabled" means to them, because it's far from trivial to just switch off a filter driver which has its hooks in the deepest nooks and crannies of the OS.

Therefore, the only way to be sure that the AV is "deactivated" is to uninstall it. Unless even the uninstall routine is borked, the act of uninstalling will deregister and remove the filter driver(s) - at least upon reboot.

Personally, I don't use AV software on my own machine. That's not the correct approach in all situations, but it works for me. I rely on a mix of being redundantly backed up, careful about what I run, and always using an unprivileged (non-admin) account for daily tasks.

The obvious exception is when I've got a downloaded executable that I want to run without being 100% sure of its cleanliness. An AV scanner _without_ a driver can go over the files in a directory structure and tell me whether it thinks they're OK. For example:

ClamWin Portable | PortableApps.com - Portable software for USB drives

Because of the lack of a kernel-mode driver and low-level integration, it cannot perform real-time scanning, but then that's exactly the way I want it in this particular setup.

Hope this helps. (BTW, I was being facetious with the "1984" comment. The mental image of somebody seeking "a fix" for their UI freeze issue for "a quarter of a century" was somewhat amusing. No offence intended )

I have Windows 7 RC 32-bit Build 7100 which I installed onto Vista,ie, I did not do a clean install. This problem did not start happening for some weeks after install and I don't know what caused it. But I fixed this problem with an inexpensive commercial product that was already available on my machine-Avanquest System Suite 9 Pro, fix-it 9. I just ran its one click scan and after it finished the problem was gone!!! I am not affiliated with Avanquest. Maybe other virus scans, etc would do the same thing. But before this, Windows 7 was unusable and I would go to my other machine windows 7 RC 64-bit which I did do a clean install on that never has problems.