Windows Explorer keeps crashing

Posting your system specs would be helpful. I think you might have better luck with one of the newer Win7 builds.

saikanoto said:

Since I started up my computer today, I've been getting the message: 'Windows Explorer has stopped working' and then restarting explorer every 5 seconds (not exaggerating). I am currently unable to use any desktop, taskbar or start menu functions or open up any folders. I have tried restarting, repairing and recovery, but none of these have made any difference. This problem also occurs when running in safe mode.

I am running 64bit Windows 7RC build 7100 and have not installed any new pieces of hardware or software recently. Can someone help me sort out this problem please.

many times a new REBOOT will fix this problem.
If not you might try
start -> cmd (run as admin) SFC /scannow
that checks to see if you have any corrupt system files.

chev65 said:

Posting your system specs would be helpful. I think you might have better luck with one of the newer Win7 builds.

System Specs:

• Processor ~ Intel Q6700
• Motherboard ~ Gigabyte GA-EP43-DS3R
• HDD ~ Western Digital Caviar Green 1TB (WD10EADS)
• GPU ~ MSI Nvidia 8600 GT
• RAM ~ 2x2GB DDR2 800MHz + 2x1GB DDR2 667MHz

Do you need any more info?

Also, how do I acquire a newer build?

Lordbob75 said:

If you cannot open Command Prompt to type this in, then put in your install disk and boot into it. Then, select "Repair Your Computer" and choose your installation. Then do a startup repair, or run sfc /scannow from that cmd prompt

Startup repair states that no problems are found. Using the command prompt brings up a message saying that a repair job is currently pending, and suggests to reboot and try again, which I have done several times.

The problem's now upgraded from Windows Explorer not working to Windows not working.

You have to see why explorer crash. Go to see reliability monitor (it's in start menu) and view the technical details of explorer.exe to know what .dll is causing the crash.

The explorer.exe crash is occurring with a lot of Windows 7 x64 users. See the following links:

Windows Explorer crashing on right-click under x64 RTM
RTM x64 Right Click Explorer Crash? - My Digital Life Forums
Explorer.exe Stops Responding at Random - Neowin Forums

No-one seems to have tracked down the cause and system logs are not really helpful as the just list than explorer.exe has failed and point to ntdll.dll.

Suggested causes so far are, an issue with Ultimate x64, FF3.5, codec packs, incompatable context menu extensions and KIS2010.

My suggestion is to rollback to a restore point before the crashes started to occur and then reinstall your applications one at a time with a restore point between each install. Simply uninstalling suspect applications doesn't seem to work as the crash seems to become persistant once it starts to occur.

Brink said:

If you have not already, you might see if doing a System Restore at boot using a restore point dated before this problem may be able to fix it. If not, then a repair install may be able to.

Hope this helps,
Shawn

I've tried doing a system restore already. The first few times it produced an error message but now it's telling me that no restore points exist.

The problem has now changed to the computer rebooting after entering the windows loading screen so there will be no way of doing anything in windows. I have also tried reinstalling windows 7 but it has made no effect. This problem is similar to what happened to my computer a couple of months ago whilst using vista, but since then, I've replaced every component apart from the graphics card and PSU, and haven't installed the same programs as before, so do you believe that one of these two components could be causing the trouble, or could it just be coincidence?

N.B. It was the new HDD that sorted out the problem last time.