explorer.exe crashes..

Ch@n · 06 Jan 2010

Hi all,

My first thread here after helping others.

I have noticed this explorer.exe encountered a problem and needs to close and after which a message explorer is restarting umpteen times.

When drilled down why it is happening, I came to know, whenever I change the start orb, after few days this happens. Also, whenever I go into root drive and rather than scrolling to the folder hit the starting letter to browse to that folder, explorer crashes.

Today, I browsed to Restorator folder in start menu and same message. But this time, explorer didnt restart. After which, each time I restart, the same issue happens.

Same in safe mode with inbuilt admin account. Strange!!!

Due to this, I am not able to restore my original explorer saved in another drive too. So hit, ctrl+al+del to open taskmanager, new process and explorer.exe, it starts in the process list and then vanishes.

So, went into repair, did a system restore, same.
Opened command prompt from there, renamed the explorer in windows, copied the backup, restart, same.

Since, I am not able to open command prompt during normal restart or in safe mode to try sfc, so opened command prompt from repair and tried. Gave me a message, system repair has done and needs a restart. Tried restart and same message. So basically, we cant run sfc frm command prompt from system repair.

So, did a restart again, into safe mode, once booted, hit win+r and typed cmd and ok.

Got the prompt and then ran sfc. In the backgrnd same message explorer stopped working and it vanished.

Finally, after sfc, it is back to normal.

Why is this happening?

Note: All possible steps have been tried accor to my knowledge and sorry for the looong post.

Venths · 06 Jan 2010

* As you have tried all possible solutions, you have to overwrite windows to fix this

* This error usually occurs, when a related DLL file was replaced from a DLL file of another application that was installed recently which causes the issue.

* In Windows XP, System Restore will resolve the issue. But in 7 Restore option itself have some issues. Hence, I would suggest you to upgrading/overwritng your Windows Copy to resolve the issue :)

* Alternatively you can try replacing the EXPLORER.EXE file in the C:/WINDOWS folder, from any other source

. If you want I can post you my Explorer.exe file here

Ch@n · 06 Jan 2010

thnx for the help..I wuld be using 7 only till April after which it will nt work. Wil be revertin back to Vista.

RAMWolff · 06 Jan 2010

I've just started getting this issue as well. I had a folder nested in My Documents called "Writings". When I would go in there to add a file in the Audio Video folder INSTANT crash. If I went into any other folder in there it would be fine. When I moved the Writings folder out onto the desktop and entered the Audio Video folder, no more crashes. WTF is that all about??

Ch@n · 06 Jan 2010

This explorer crashes drives me crazy.. I have also noticed, that some of the icons shown near the clock is not displayed again after explorer restarts. Due to this, I need to start the app again. Like yahoo messenger.

Venths · 07 Jan 2010

Just perfom an upgrade of you Windows :)

Ch@n · 07 Jan 2010

For that I need to buy Windows 7. I am not willing to do that, cos, I own Vista business and active in anothr partition.

Ch@n · 07 Jan 2010

Update: from today morning my outlook 2010 beta is not functioning has it as to be. The send and receive stays in processing and doesnt move further. when closing it, the process is not killed.

also found out 2 instance of explorer is running. when exiting both and restarting it, outlook works fine. This is killing me and I am totally disappointed.

2 options,
Re-install or upgrade RC. Can this be done without any affect on the files and profiles?
Go back to Vista. OMG!!!

dmex · 07 Jan 2010

Hi,

Sounds like a IFilter, Shell extension or Application extension is the cause.

An IFilter is used by explorer and Windows Search to show details of an unknown new filetype and the files details in explorer. Shell Extensions are dlls added to explorer or other extensibility points to provide extra features like context menus, virtual files/folders or other enhancements to the way you interact with explorer and files/folders. Application extensions can be mis-used to an extent, meaning some can be loaded by Windows into every application using the AppInitDLLs registry key or selectively into specific applications and can do nearly anything.

One or multiple extensions crashing or having issues can and does cause the unexplainable and weird issues with Explorer some users have mentioned having in this thread, Download AutoRuns from Microsoft: Autoruns for Windows then go File> Run As Administrator then File> Save and upload the results so we can take a look at whats being loaded and executed.

It might not be anything causing it which would usually mean a memory hardware problem or even something simple like a corrupt Office or daemon tools Shell Extension causing the crashes, its hard to diagnose any specific causes without having details about whats being loaded by your machine but once we have the results you can use AutoRuns and we can let you know what extensions are safe to disable/enable to help identify the exact cause.

Steven

Ch@n · 07 Jan 2010

tht was detailed and understandable. thnx a heap. I resolved my issue myself :) but not sure it is temporary or permanent. Wil try the autoruns and provide the result here. Here is wat I have did.
For double explorer,
restarted multiple times, now the second one doesnt appear.

For outlook, tried a repair, did nothing. Then opened outlook in safe mode, no change. Then disabled al add-in, no change.

Then removed hotmail account from auto send/receive, worked fine. So disabled connector and removed hotmail account and manually added it.

Now everything is fine in regards wit Outlook.

Keeping my fingers crosd for explorer.