Explorer.exe keeps crashing

JohnnyIce said:

Alright so for the first thing, I don't remember how to check my page file it's been a long time since I did that. Also yes I have 248GB free. Secondly, when I go to the write debugging information, I only get kernel dump and small dump, there is no full dump. I set it to small dump because it was on kernel but I'm not sure if that's right.

Small dump will be fine. Strangely I just checked and I do not get a full dump option either.

Re: Page file.

Start> Run

type sysdm.cpl and press Enter

Advanced tab> Performance> Settings> Advanced> Virtual Memory> Change

Just check the size of the page file on your windows partition. If it is set to "system managed" it should be fine anyway.

Edit:

RE: File not found error when disabling context menu handlers. It would be interesting to see what UVK finds as it may report the same problem.

There are other more advanced tools that can enable/ disable context menu handlers but lets see if you get another crash.

Am I correct in thinking that explorer crashes at random times and not when you are right clicking something or opening a particular type of folder or library? Music, video. documents etc.

I just mention it because another reason for explorer crashing can be the presence of a corrupt media file somewhere on your hard drive.

Okay here is something to test. Would you mind disabling Pushbullet from startup? You can undo the change - it's just a test.

Start> Run then type msconfig

Press Enter

On the startup tab uncheck Pushbullet. Click OK. Reboot and test.

You also seem to have a startup entry that points to 3RVX in your downloads folder. Is that the volume control icon program or something else?

John\Run> | 3RVX | File not found: C:\Users\John\Downloads\3

Also since WinRAR is free and can be installed anytime would you mind removing the context menu handlers?

Copy and paste the following into a text file (create with notepad)

Code:

 <CreateRestorePoint>
 <SDelete>
<FileContextMenu> | WinRAR32 |  | No description | Hash error: File not found | Unsigned :  No publisher
<FolderContextMenu> | WinRAR32 |  | No description | Hash error: File not found | Unsigned :  No publisher

Save the file to your desktop as a text file with .txt extension then once saved rename with .uvk extension.

So basically save as something like UVK Fix.txt then rename to UVK Fix.uvk

Run UVK as administrator and from the selcome screen choose "Run Scripts" then "Import Commands From File"

Browse to UVK Fix.uvk on your desktop and open it.

Then choose Run/ Fix Listed.

Reboot when finished.

You can also use Autoruns to re-enable those other context menu handlers that you disabled since the issue persists.

If it's not fixed there are still a lot more things to try unfortunately. I also note that you have Open Hardware Monitor Beta v7 installed. Beta software often has bugs so on that basis it might be an idea to test with it disabled. Again it seems to be running from your downloads folder.

The usual way to run software is to install it or if it's a portable app move it out of your downloads folder into it's own folder.

I would think that it's not a good idea to run apps directly from your downloads folder but maybe other members have ideas on that as I'm not entirely sure that it would actually cause problems. :)

Well I'm not saying that I can solve the problem. I have had issues with explorer crashing in the past and fixed them. I wish I could work out why you don't see explorer crash dumps.

Open Hardware Monitor is probably not the culprit but it is Beta software so might be buggy.

I don't use any real time monitoring software that does the same thing. I use SIV to check when I need to but it's not exactly user friendly.

I suspect that other members could offer suggestions on an alternative with real time monitoring.

RE: Registry entries for Explorer Crash Dumps. I never tried creating them manually but if you want to try - it would appear that you will need to create a folder here:

C:\LocalDumps

and add these entries to your registry:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Windows Error Reporting\LocalDumps\Explorer.exe]

I'm not sure that manually creating those entries would actually work. Here's the contents of the reg file:

Code:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Windows Error Reporting\LocalDumps\Explorer.exe]
"DumpFolder"=hex(2):43,00,3a,00,5c,00,4c,00,6f,00,63,00,61,00,6c,00,44,00,75,\
  00,6d,00,70,00,73,00,00,00

As for replacing Windows Desktop I've only ever tried using Classic Shell once in the past.

Do you have folders containing video or image files on your desktop? If so - try temporarily moving them onto an external drive.

If you end the explorer process you should really restart it from Task Manager.

File> New Task (Run)

then type

explorer.exe and press Enter.

Exit task manager and right click your desktop. Choose "Refresh"