How To Fix Explorer.exe Crashing In Windows 7 x64

ViciouslyCold

ViciouslyCold

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I saw this many times and there is a quick fix for some. You see Windows 7 x64 actually uses System32 explorer.exe and not SysWOW64. This is a problem because there is no explorer.exe in System32 (least not for me).

The quick fix is this. Copy (not move) the explorer.exe from system then paste it in the System32 folder.
 

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Yes,it works for me in x64.

You have to copy Explorer.exe from SysWOW64 folder in System32 folder.

No crashes anymore.
 

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ViciouslyCold said:
I saw this many times and there is a quick fix for some. You see Windows 7 x64 actually uses System32 explorer.exe and not SysWOW64. This is a problem because there is no explorer.exe in System32 (least not for me).

The quick fix is this. Copy (not move) the explorer.exe from system then paste it in the System32 folder.
Click to expand...

How is it managing to crash if it doesn't exist?
 

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Great. Thanks. Hopefully this will fix the Explorer crashes.

This has been annoying me since I installed my W7 Ultimate from the Microsoft party pack. I was using build 7100 before with no problems at all..
 

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It doesn't matter if you copy it from system or sysWOW64.

and H2 it manages to crash because Windows is looking for explorer.exe in Windows32. So whenever it doesn't find it, windows crashes. I guess Windows does things in cycles which is why it crashes randomly instead of never works.
 

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ViciouslyCold said:
It doesn't matter if you copy it from system or sysWOW64.

and H2 it manages to crash because Windows is looking for explorer.exe in Windows32. So whenever it doesn't find it, windows crashes. I guess Windows does things in cycles which is why it crashes randomly instead of never works.
Click to expand...

Why would it be looking for it in ..\system32 when it lives in \Windows?

How does it manage to find it when it needs to start it, only to then "forget" and look in the wrong place whenever a crash occurs?
 

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H2SO4 said:
ViciouslyCold said:
It doesn't matter if you copy it from system or sysWOW64.

and H2 it manages to crash because Windows is looking for explorer.exe in Windows32. So whenever it doesn't find it, windows crashes. I guess Windows does things in cycles which is why it crashes randomly instead of never works.
Click to expand...

Why would it be looking for it in ..\system32 when it lives in \Windows?

How does it manage to find it when it needs to start it, only to then "forget" and look in the wrong place whenever a crash occurs?
Click to expand...

You'd have to ask Microsoft. All I know is one day I was using Auslogics Task Manager and clicked on the explorer.exe to see where it was located and it sent me to System32 and no explorer.exe was in there.
 

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ViciouslyCold said:
You'd have to ask Microsoft. All I know is one day I was using Auslogics Task Manager and clicked on the explorer.exe to see where it was located and it sent me to System32 and no explorer.exe was in there.
Click to expand...

Since the (64-bit) Explorer.exe resides in \Windows, and not \Windows\System32, I'm tempted to conclude that the Auslogics product produced an incorrect result for reasons of its own.
 

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H2SO4 said:
ViciouslyCold said:
You'd have to ask Microsoft. All I know is one day I was using Auslogics Task Manager and clicked on the explorer.exe to see where it was located and it sent me to System32 and no explorer.exe was in there.
Click to expand...

Since the (64-bit) Explorer.exe resides in \Windows, and not \Windows\System32, I'm tempted to conclude that the Auslogics product produced an incorrect result for reasons of its own.
Click to expand...

Well as u can tell by other people's posts putting explorer.exe in system32 fixes crashing so clearly its not wrong. If it were wrong my advice would fail because system32 wouldn't matter then.
 

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ViciouslyCold said:
Well as u can tell by other people's posts putting explorer.exe in system32 fixes crashing so clearly its not wrong. If it were wrong my advice would fail because system32 wouldn't matter then.
Click to expand...

Good on ya for helping others :)
 

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H2SO4 said:
ViciouslyCold said:
Well as u can tell by other people's posts putting explorer.exe in system32 fixes crashing so clearly its not wrong. If it were wrong my advice would fail because system32 wouldn't matter then.
Click to expand...

Good on ya for helping others :)
Click to expand...

Well that is what were here for to seek and give advice.
 

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ViciouslyCold said:
I saw this many times and there is a quick fix for some. You see Windows 7 x64 actually uses System32 explorer.exe and not SysWOW64. This is a problem because there is no explorer.exe in System32 (least not for me).

The quick fix is this. Copy (not move) the explorer.exe from system then paste it in the System32 folder.
Click to expand...

If you run task manager processes tab and right click on explorer.exe, then open file location, you will see that explorer.exe runs from:

C:Windows\explorer.exe by default.

I copied explorer.exe to system32 folder rebooted and explorer was still running from:

C:Windows\explorer.exe

This did not work for me.
 
Last edited:

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shuster said:
ViciouslyCold said:
I saw this many times and there is a quick fix for some. You see Windows 7 x64 actually uses System32 explorer.exe and not SysWOW64. This is a problem because there is no explorer.exe in System32 (least not for me).

The quick fix is this. Copy (not move) the explorer.exe from system then paste it in the System32 folder.
Click to expand...

If you run task manager processes tab and right click on explorer.exe, then open file location, you will see that explorer.exe runs from:

C:Windows\explorer.exe by default.
Click to expand...

There's a dif between seeing where it says it's at and actually being able to click on the onto the processor itself and see what folder it shows it. Maybe the fact Windows shows it at System but the clicking on it and getting sent to the Windows32 folder is why it crashes so much?
 

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For windows to start and get to your desktop it would have to execute explorer.exe from either the syswow64 folder or c:\windows folder since there is no explorer.exe in system32 folder by default. If your symptom is that windows never gets to the desktop, then I can believe you. If you are getting to the dektop and then at some point explorer crashes your theory cannot be correct.
 

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System Drive/Windows/Explorer.exe -64bit
System Drive/Windows/SysWOW64/Explorer.exe -32bit


Why do i need an explorer.exe in System32 when its "pulling" the correct one from the previous links:huh:

Really strange,...it isn't missing anything...
 

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shuster said:
For windows to start and get to your desktop it would have to execute explorer.exe from either the syswow64 folder or c:\windows folder since there is no explorer.exe in system32 folder by default. If your symptom is that windows never gets to the desktop, then I can believe you. If you are getting to the dektop and then at some point explorer crashes your theory cannot be correct.
Click to expand...

I'd give you rep again, but it won't let me yet :)
 

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The more the merrier.

If he is still not convinced, I would suggest deleting explorer.exe from the c:\windows folder and rebooting. But have a repair cd handy to replace it again to get back to the desktop.
 
Last edited:

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shuster said:
The more the merrier.

If he is still not convinced, I would suggest deleting explorer.exe from the c:\windows folder and rebooting. But have a repair cd handy to replace it again to get back to the desktop.
Click to expand...

I don't know who this message is directed to but I myself am only going by my own personal experiences and what I did to fix it. What I did worked for me and seems to have helped others too.
 

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I dunno, just a wild guess here. Is it possible that the explorer.exe is coded to look for itself in the wrong place, possibly under a specific condition (like a plugin installed or something)...thus that is why it doesn't crash when it's copied over to system32?

My theory is that it's not Windows itself looking for it there in system32...but explorer.exe or hook to it looking there. I can't understand any other way this fix would actually work.
 

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*posted also in the other thread dealing with this issue*


I have the same issue with Windows 7 x64 Sig edition.

I have moved the explorer.exe to system32 and it made no difference.

I'm getting at least 5 explorer.exe crashes a day.

Because I'm hosting one of the release parties, they have a priority support ticket number. I've just been on the phone for an hour and the support guy took over my system, looked in the event viewer, did an sfc/ scannow and tried to get me to replicate the crash. Of course there was no crash when he was in my system while I was on the phone to him (sods law)

I am to use my system as normal over the weekend then contact him again on Monday by which time he will have done some research on the problem and check the crashes that I have over the weekend.

I was using build 7100 with zero problems before I got the Signature edition.

I'll report back on Monday to see what (or if there is one) the solution is.

I don't really want to host a party and be showing people my system with it crashing when I show them libraries.
 

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Windows 7Q96508gb G.Skill DDR2-1100ATI Radeon HD4870 512mb
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Q9650
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Gigabyte GA-Ep45-UD3L
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8gb G.Skill DDR2-1100
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ASUS
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