Windows 7: Win7 Ultimate x64 SP1 Explorer.exe The Oddest Issue Ever

I don't know anything about this. I've never seen it before.

Right click problems usually indicate problems with a shell extension.

Still need to see a screenshot of the context menu displayed when using Explorer++ to right click on a shortcut that might usually crash explorer.

Also would like to see a dedicated explorer crash dump.

I suppose that I should mention that if you do actually merge that reg file you should open it with your text editor first and backup (export) the reg key that it will replace.

Howdy Callender,

Well, no problem here:

1. Yep. Of course I know that right click crashes usually indicate some shell extension problem. So now you can get my point in full when I headed this thread as "z oddest issue" when my particular case is that all explorer.exe operations, incl. right clicks as well as all others, are being executed in absolutely normal way but each of these operations results in increasing of size of explorer.exe process, that also assumes as normal, same normal as auto-decreasing explorer.exe process size when those operation(s) finished. However, after explorer.exe process naturally (depends on time & number of operations performed) reaches some relatively big and absolutely unclear (experimentally mentioned) threshold value of 80-90-100MB, and then on various actions performed with explorer.exe (here I insist that this issue can be initiated by not only at some particular right click operation but any right click operation as well as any other operation explorer.exe involved in - just non-right click on folder shortcut on desktop, for instance) z issue as like-crash/freeze/broken-folder-view occurred but WITHOUT EVEN A RECORD IN WIN7 LOGS!

2. Explore++ is ready for next issue

3. Reg. patch applied in decent way, also win error reporting service switched from its my default Manual to Automatic. So laptop is now ready to produce the preferred by you explorer.exe dumps. (Although personally I guess that win7 will produce no dumps at issue time, in same manner as it doesn't provide ANY record to its logs)

4. Both latest Nilsoft ShellExView & ShellMenuView, as well as Autoruns, are also ready.

Now just waiting for next issue... it takes time... you know... and I'm not able to hurry it up... except by right clicking and performing other operations with explorer.exe as many as possible until explorer.exe process size reaches that its cabbalistic threshold...

P.S. I guess we just trying to apply z common remedies to z uncommon case. And there could be a number of reasons for this abnormal issue with this laptop. For instance 3 main ones are:

a) It's hard disks configuration as mentioned earlier
(here, again for example, there is z known issue when I can get z fatal error if try to install m$ .NET framework 4.6.1 or 4.6.2 under the default config of SATA2 AHCI SSD and IDE ATA hot-swapping 1TB HDD. However, if I simply temporarily remove IDE HDD thru z standard win7 Safely Remove Hardware function, this m$ .net framework installs w/o a glitch! BTW, v4.6.2 currently installed. But I know z culprit here - win7, again for some cabbalistic reason, doesn't like two(2) Dell OEM FAT16 Diagnostic partitions within a system [Though this glitch isn't extending to external USB HDDs. That is to say if 3rd USB HDD with another Dell OEM partition will be connected to z system - it's no problem!] I mean that if I'll just kill z Dell OEM FAT16 Diagnostic partition on 2nd inner IDE HDD, this .net framework install issue will be immediately gone. It was tested!)

b) Its intel 965 chipset officially supports only 4GB RAM but is z first intel chipset supporting 8GB RAM unofficially. Naturally I have 8GB installed and well recognizable by BIOS

c) The known as questionably reliable NVidia Quadro FX360M videocard. Also it's not so notorious as its predecessor FX350M

Another trap, which I guess possible, is some deep hidden error or abnormal status of some of multiple win7 DCOM servers, likely z ones related to cache or shell

Anyhow, I really much appreciate your kind help to solve this odd issue!
So let's check all common remedy ways first.

Shell extensions!

I've not had problems with them in years, but they were a frequent issue years ago.
Explorer good, add-ons bad!
But not so often anymore.

I would use ShellExView to see them. I'd sort by manufacturer and turn off those not made by Microsoft. That always did the trick for me.

Well, well, well.... Z issue occurred again at z moment of explorer.exe size of same around 100MB, and again w/o even ANY record in win7 logs.

And no explorer.exe dumps have been auto-created! (Maybe because win7 wasn't yet restarted after reg patch applied and till z moment of issue)

however, I have a bit more info for your when I was lucky to test what's going in Explorer++.

Pictures attached (from top to bottom) taken at z moment of or right after issue:

1.Another way of a broken view of folder with photos. This folder was opened thru a right click of one photo shortcut in Recent Docs win7 menu.

2. Same folder in Explorer++ (sorry, at z moment of issue Explorer++ View option was set to its default - Medium Icons - not thumbnails)
Also here you can see a broken view of desktop screen itself - some black frames around icon in top left desktop corner!

3. I've duly check all right clicks operations in Explorer++ at same folder, Recent folder and others - and all looks normal!
Also here you can again see a broken view of desktop screen itself - some black frames around icons in top left desktop corner!

4. Earlier there was mentioned broken win7 fonts (like bold) view - so it's a sample of almost completely broken view of one of Action Center windows. This window normal info partly missed, plus another part fonts became like bold.

5. Another explorer.exe minidump made by same as before Process Explorer utility.

That's all for a moment.

p.s. after this issue both shell32.dll m$ hotfixes applied have been removed as useless first, and win7 has been restored to earlier time before 1st hotfix applied then!

Okay I'm at work currently. A quick suggestion is to check for and apply any updates for those softwares listed in the right click context menu. If any of the software is free- suggest a full removal using GeekUninstaller or similar (not Add/ Remove Programs) then reboot and clean install the software if possible.

Another check would be to uninstall the software shown and reboot then test to see if the issue remains before installing the software again.

RE: NVidia Quadro FX360M videocard.

Did you update any drivers recently?

RE: Explorer Crash Dumps not appearing. Just check that folder Localdumps from time to time and also following a reboot.

No problem here. I'm not in harry when this no-frequent but many months old issue actually doesn't affect my normal use of this laptop when I just need to restart it once in a 2-3-4 days.

I) All 3rd party applications as visible in a right click menu at pic#3 above are manly not free but most of the latest versions/builds, except ones I prefer to use old versions. In short they are (from top to bottom):

1. Reg Organizer v7.40 - latest;
(not widely known but z absolutely perfect windows tweaker!)
2. ACDSee Pro Ultimate 9 (many entries + pic preview) - latest;
(widely known pic manager app)
3. Adobe Acrobat XI 11.0.17 Pro - latest;
(widely known PDF app)
4. ABBYY FineReader 12 - latest or not old;
(quite widely known scanning & text recognizing app)
5. Symantec Norton 360 - ver. of 2014 I prefer;
(widely known antivirus app)
6. WinRAR - latest;
(widely known archive app)
7. AuthenTech Power Suite - maybe 2012 but latest, then purchased by Apple;
(quite widely known fingerprint app, very useful)
8. Malwarebytes Anti-Malware - latest;
(widely known antimalware app)

Well... I've already tried to uninstall/reinstall some of them with no effect to z issue.
Also why uninstall when I can easily disable all items by ShellExView or ShellMenuView or even tools of CCleaner; and I've already disabled all many times w/o effect.


II) Same story with NVidia drivers - I've tried a lot of versions from oldest to z latest one... and provided both by NVidia & M$... w/o effect to z issue.

I guess now I prefer to wait a day or something till next issue in hope to finally get a dump you need. Am I wrong?

Any other ideas meanwhile?

Appreciate

Don't worry. There is just no C:\LocalDumps folder at all yet.

But z required key added to registry:

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

and win error reporting service set to automatic from manual.

also laptop has been surely restarted a few times.

Well hopefully that dump will appear! I have other ideas. I'm not sure if it's much use.

Use your picture manger (if it can do this) to check thumbnail previews of images in all suspect folders and see if there are any that can't be displayed. You'd probably need to mess about with view settings so that you can see as many thumbnails previews at a time as possible.

If you've got a spare drive try moving any suspect folders containing images onto it and disconnect it. Test for a while and see if the issue remains.

Or just copy so that you have a backup then run the utility in this post:

File not showing up in folder,but showing up in Remove Empty Directori

Inspect the log for errors when complete. I strongly suggest backing up images first though.

Also consider getting MediaPreview linked in this post:

Where are the Most Recently Used Lists?

and read the post below regarding corrupt files.

RE: Uninstalling software rather than disabling shell extensions. If it's all up to date then uninstalling probably won't help unless the problem is with the current version(s) - Also I've seen cases where simply updating software has actually left remnants of old versions including faulty shell extensions.

ShellExView doesn't actually show all shell extensions as far as I know. You'd need to run both 32bit and 64bit versions of it. Then you'd need to run ShellMenuView (both 32bit and 64bit versions) and sort by "File Type" then check anything listed as "Drive" "File Folder" "Shortcut"

If you get time you could run a scan with UVK as per this post:

CCleaner ccsetup504.exe: "...side-by-side configuration is incorrect"

You can upload the log and also check it yourself.

Well... I surely understand your suspicions towards images & thumbnails but frankly speaking don't dream to mess up with moving folders etc at this moment. Also as you might remember I've already performed a number of various checks concerning images w/o any sign of problems found. Right?

Also I've surely read thru your earlier discussions with people here incl. someone with NVidia card and UVK scans...

Let's wait for next issue to get z preferred by you dump. Hopefully! When as you might remember I personally expect no dumps if again no any records in win7 logs. Anyhow this awaiting won't take long

BTW, is there any sense to ask you to check my recently above attached dump to confirm if culprit is tentatively same shell32.dll meanwhile?

Thanks.