Windows Explorer is not responding, blue circle endlessly rotating

There is a perhaps related post four weeks ago, to which there have been no replies. I open Windows Explorer, and highlight a folder. Then hit the DELETE key. The little blue circle icon shows the light chasing its tail endlessly. Task Manager indicates "not responding" and when I hit the white X on red "close" button in upper right corner, I get an error window that says the same thing. There is only a single thumbnail.info file in the folder. If I try to click on another folder, the screen goes gray. This happens only recently, not previously.

I have tried using Cubic Explorer, which I presume uses some of the same code as Win Explorer. It also freezes, and when I go to close it the error window says File Manager not responding.

How to fix this?

I tried to delete the file in the otherwise empty folder by finding it using Agent Ransack, a file-finding app. I highlighted the file, one of a large number named ZbThumbnail.info, and tried to delete it. Same problem as when using Win Explorer or Cubic Explorer. So is it the ZbThumbnail.info filename that is the crux? How do I delete such files? I am not able to delete the otherwise empty folders containing them.

I moved some photo JPGs from a couple of folders into one folder, consolidating the photos from the month of October. This left the ZbThumbnail.info files left over.

Start now working through these troubleshooting steps, asking back any questions that come up and letting us know your progress.

Now I believe that the crux is NOT any particular file. I got stuck on that ZbThumbnail.info file because that was the only file that I wanted to delete. Now I know that the hang happens any time I right-click when in any app that uses Windows Explorer code.

I have rebooted many many times, with no apps other than Win Explorer opened. I do not believe that it has anything to do with file ownership.

Is there anyway to download and reinstall only Windows Explorer? I am extremely frustrated to be unable to use almost all Win Explorer functionality.

It is not just right click. I highlight a file, and then hit delete key. It is a NoOp -- nothing happens. Something is just plain wrong in Win Explorer. I have two years of work on HD, so I cannot do a destructive install of the factory condition.

Somehow, I have to restore Win Explorer to correct functionality.

ZbThumbnail.info is used by Canon's picture viewer to quickly arrange the viewing order of pictures (taken by a Canon camera and other make as well). It is usually installed when the Canon utilities are installed (along with a utility that's needed to download pictures from camera to the computer).

Uninstalling the program 'Zoombrowser' (from Control Panel; Uninstall programs) will also remove the folder that contained ZBThumbnail.info.

Paul

Did you even see my post which is designed to troubleshoot exactly these types of issues?

You want a clean boot, comb the logs for repeat errors, use the System Resources given. You could already be halfway through the steps in the time its taken you to ignore them.

You can also copy out your files using the Win7 DVD or Repair CD (which you need for repairs anyway) using this method: Copy & Paste - in Windows Recovery Console

Post back any questions you have. This is an interactive forum where we offer the steps proven to solve your problem hundreds of times over.

I had this same problem every 1-2 days my Windows Explorer starts malfunctioning. Specifically, whenever I try to enter a folder, the little spinner goes FOREVER until I close the window or reboot. I cannot access any folders or files.

So I opened Process Explorer and started killing processes, then WHAM, explorer started working again. I don't know specifically which process I killed that made this start working again. I hope to figure that out next time this happens, but killing some process most certainly solved this. I killed Carbonite, ipod stuff, itunes stuff, Google crash handler, and some other stuff.