Solved Windows Explorer has stopped working after login.

[konniksanders]

Hello Sevenforums people,

My laptop recently got the "Windows Explorer has stopped working." error after logging in.
I rebooted my laptop one day and after logging in this popped up.

No background, task bar, icons etc. Safe mode doesn't work.
My laptop tried restoring itself to a point in time when it wasn't corrupt which also failed.
The error report says Shell32 is the faulting module. (I've had problems with Shell32 before on another computer, but on that pc I could acces internet and such.

Any help would be greatly appreciated since I do not want to wait 2 month for Dell to reply to me with an evading answer.

It's a Dell XPS 15 l502x laptop with W7 Home Premium.

Thanks in advance.

 

[xxxdannyxxx]

Hello konniksanders

Have a look at this tutorial firstly. You may need to run up to three times then report back on any errors/repairs - http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/139810-sfc-scannow-run-command-prompt-boot.html

Danny

 

[konniksanders]

Thanks for the tutorial, but when I type in /scf/scannow/offbootdir... etc.

1
I get a list of all possible combinations with scf, not a sentence that says that it is scanning and repairing files.

2
And when I just enter /scf/scannow it says a repair is pending and that I need to restart, which, in turn has no affect on the 'pending' repair.

Any further ideas?

Here's some screens put together.

 

[writhziden]

The C: drive may not be the correct drive to run on. Try D:, E:, F:, or even G:

To find the correct drive:

C:
dir
D:
dir
E:
dir
F:
dir
G:
dir​

etc. until you see the Windows directory listed.
NOTE: It will not be X:

The recovery environment sees hidden partitions that Windows does not, and it labels the drive letters based on which partition is first. The first partition is C:, and subsequent partitions get the subsequent letters in the alphabet. X: is the memory (virtual) drive that the Windows repair exists on.

Often, the drive will be partitioned with a System Reserved partition before the Windows partition, and that partition will be C:. The next partition may be a Factory Image partition for recovery of the computer back to the Factory Image that your vendor installed. That is why the Windows drive may be any drive beyond C:

 

[konniksanders]

The C: drive may not be the correct drive to run on. Try D:, E:, F:, or even G:

You are right, as you can see, the OS is located on the D: drive, strangely enough I still get the same result when changing C to D in the cmd prompt.

 

[writhziden]

You have typos in the commands you have in the image. There should be a space after D:\ and before the /offwindir and you used offwindor instead of offwindir

 

[konniksanders]

You have typos in the commands you have in the image. There should be a space after D:\ and before the /offwindir and you used offwindor instead of offwindir

I now have:

X:\windows\system32>sfc/scannow/offbootdir=D:\ /offwindir=D:\windows

and the results are the same. Could it be that the OS isn't installed on C untill G even though it says it's on D?

I think it doesn't recognise anything that I put after the sfc/scannow/... command.

I think that there's an error since when I enter the command 'sfc/scannow' it says it's beginning system scan. However it says underneath that there is a system repair pending and it needs to reboot.

 

[writhziden]

you need a space before /scannow and before /offbotdir=D:\

 

[konniksanders]

you need a space before /scannow and before /offbotdir=D:\

It works, scanning now, thanks very much.

I thought the spaces didn't matter because when I first used this command with C:\ it didn't work so I ignored those. I will update you on the results, thanks for your patience and help.

 

[writhziden]

No problem. You may have to run that up to three times (with a restart in between each run) to resolve all errors. Report back if no integrity violations are found on the first run, or report back if the fourth run still gives errors that the sfc cannot repair.

 

[konniksanders]

No problem. Report back if no integrity violations are found on the first run.

Thanks!
No violations were found, what to do?

 

[writhziden]

Do you have your windows key on your keyboard enabled? If you start Windows, and you press Windows Key + R, do you get a run dialog box?

 

[konniksanders]

I do have it enabled and when 'logged in' and I press the Windows + R keys I do not get a run dialog box.

Do I need to /sfc/scannow/... again?

 

[writhziden]

I was hoping to help you get into msconfig to determine if it is an application or service conflicting with explorer.exe

Go through the steps in http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/219533-troubleshooting-windows-7-failure-boot.html and see if they allow you to resolve the problem. Carefully follow all steps (minus the SFC step since you already ran that).

 

[konniksanders]

Thanks very much for the link, I will take every plausible step to ressurect my computer, I will update this post when I need some additional information or when it worked.

As of right now I am probably transfering all my files using the Paragon File transferer via CD and reinstalling windows with a W7 iso file and reactivating W7.

Thanks for all the help so far!

 

[writhziden]

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/219487-clean-reinstall-factory-oem-windows-7-a.html#post1839164 may be of interest to you since you are re-installing Windows 7.

 

[konniksanders]

I reinstalled Windows 7 and fortunately, even though I had backed up my files, windows kept all my data in the windows.old folder, so no harm has been done except most of my games do not work and I have to reinstall them.
But thats a small price to pay.

Thanks very much Writh!

 

[writhziden]

You're welcome! Glad you are happy with your system now.

You may mark the thread solved if you feel your problem is solved.