Explorer.exe server execution failed

[Britgeezer]

OK I was fiddling with some My documents files I copied over from XP.

Explorer no longer works, gives the error message:

Explorer.exe
server execution failed

Any ideas how to recover from this? Or do I need to recover or re-install?

 

[happinessiseasy]

I got that. Tried a multitude of things (including the very popular "fix" for Vista users all over the internet), but the only thing that fixed it was creating a new Profile and it worked. So then I copied my files over and deleted the old profile.

 

[Britgeezer]

I got that. Tried a multitude of things (including the very popular "fix" for Vista users all over the internet), but the only thing that fixed it was creating a new Profile and it worked. So then I copied my files over and deleted the old profile.

Interesting, and may help others. However there are a few other issues (spontaneous shutdown) so before I go further I will reformat and start again

 

[Shane]

I fixed this by going to Start> And in the search bar type in Computer management> Right click Computer Management and Run as Admin...

Once in Computer Management Expand Local Users and Groups> Goto Users> Double Click Administrator> Uncheck "Account is Disabled"

Log off and log back on as the Administrator User>

Now you have full access again...

You can now go Delete the corrupt User Profile and make a new one by going to User Accounts in the Control Panel.

Warning: Don't mess around in the Administrator User Profile (that's your fail-safe), just go back to Computer Management and put a check back in "Account is Disabled" log off and only mess around in the new User Profile you made.

 

[gigaherz]

Hello people,

I just today had this same problem in my Windows 7 profile.
The solution is to go to regedit, and change 2 keys to point to valid places:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders\Personal

and

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Shell  Folders\Personal

You can set back the defaults by looking at how the other entries in those keys look like.

I'm not enterely sure if the second one is necessary, but I changed both to point to valid places and it works now.

 

[Dustin]

Had the same problem. I found out it was because my external hard drive, to which my Documents library links, was unavailable (simply not turned on). The problem was immediately solved after I turned it back on.

 

[mattwyman]

The Registry changes mentioned above worked perfectly for me!
Thanks!

 

[ajhubble]

Just to reply to this, the registry fix above worked for me (I couldn't open Windows Explorer due to this error). For some reason, Win7 decided to revert the "My Documents" path to an earlier version before I changed the drive letter from D: to E:. This was an OS re-install, and all my shortcuts were referring to E:, so I had changed the D drive to E, and relocated the "My Documents" folder to my data drive with the new letter - it worked, until I restarted - or maybe I forgot to change the "My Documents" location (I don't remember).

Interestingly, this also happened to me yesterday, when my RAID data drive killed itself (for reasons unknown) and one drive was suddenly unallocated (which invalidated the RAID). This error then came up, presumably because the "My Documents" path was no longer valid.

Definately a Windows 7 bug this - it should give a more relevant error message and offer to change the path, rather than a cryptic error and refusing to open Windows Explorer.

 

[Baphomet]

The solution is to go to regedit, and change 2 keys to point to valid places: ...

Score! This worked like a charm for me as well.

Thanks for posting the solution to this VERY annoying little issue.

 

[n0nexistence]

This fix worked for me, but I did this without deleting my user account.

***NOTE: My symptoms were with a secondary hard drive and not the drive my OS was installed on.***

Once logged in as the Administrator, I changed my accounts "Type" from Administrative account to a Standard account and then back to Administrative. Once I logged in again I could access my files.

Thanks for the head start Shane

I fixed this by going to Start> And in the search bar type in Computer management> Right click Computer Management and Run as Admin...

Once in Computer Management Expand Local Users and Groups> Goto Users> Double Click Administrator> Uncheck "Account is Disabled"

Log off and log back on as the Administrator User>

Now you have full access again...

You can now go Delete the corrupt User Profile and make a new one by going to User Accounts in the Control Panel.

Warning: Don't mess around in the Administrator User Profile (that's your fail-safe), just go back to Computer Management and put a check back in "Account is Disabled" log off and only mess around in the new User Profile you made.

 

[sylvialdgsd]

Thanks

Hello people,

I just today had this same problem in my Windows 7 profile.
The solution is to go to regedit, and change 2 keys to point to valid places:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders\Personal

and

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Shell  Folders\Personal

You can set back the defaults by looking at how the other entries in those keys look like.

I'm not enterely sure if the second one is necessary, but I changed both to point to valid places and it works now.

This worked for me. Many thanks

 

[sean222]

Thank goodness for this thread, helped me figure out the problem. I actually installed a new DVD drive and instead of using the letter E: like the old DVD was, it decided to steal my Documents drive letter D: and left me baffled...lol.

 

[Stevy22]

Good Job Everyone!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Baharipet]

explorer.exe for windows 7 32bit

hey all..
I want original explorer.exe for win 7 32bit...pleasee...

 

[acontrario]

Explorer failed to open server execution failed - solved



Migrating my data folders from one PC to another (including My documents, My Picures, My downloads etc), I had used an external SATA HD drive (E: on new system) to store all this data. It was containing the My document etc well recognised by Win7 (location could be changed / moved by Windows properties features).

I copied all the data folders (except folders like My documents) to a HD in the PC (G separate from the OS drive and checked all visible folders & files were there.

I used Windows facility to move My documents on E: from external to internal drive F:.

All seemed to work so fine during and after.

Over confident in a hurry, I formated the external HD E: and disconected it.

After reboot, Explorer would not open and I had loads of problems with applications.

Looking at the registry, I saw loads of entries pointing to the old E: now disconnected

A changed the letter of the internal HD from G: to E: and reboot.

Still Explore was not working.

I used the solution provided above
i.e. modify the value of HKCU\Soft\MS\WS\Current User\Explorer\User Shell
and only that

and the miracle happened: it worked straight

I was considering reloading the system before that. So, thanks for this solution.

 

[sylvialdgsd]

to Baharipet
If you want, you can send me your email and I'll send you a copy of the Explorer file.
Sylvia

 

[phb]

Good catch!

Hello people,

I just today had this same problem in my Windows 7 profile.
The solution is to go to regedit, and change 2 keys to point to valid places:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders\Personal

and

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Shell  Folders\Personal

You can set back the defaults by looking at how the other entries in those keys look like.

I'm not enterely sure if the second one is necessary, but I changed both to point to valid places and it works now.

That tip saved my bacon. I did a little disk shuffling yesterday and tripped over the bug this forenoon (after re-starting). Thanks a lot.

 

[ankity]

Hello people,

I just today had this same problem in my Windows 7 profile.
The solution is to go to regedit, and change 2 keys to point to valid places:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders\Personal

and

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Shell  Folders\Personal

You can set back the defaults by looking at how the other entries in those keys look like.

I'm not enterely sure if the second one is necessary, but I changed both to point to valid places and it works now.

ok i founds them 2 keys now what do you mean by changing them to valid places?
you mean something like C:\Users\ankity\Documents?
im really bad at this stuff lol.

 

[gigaherz]

Well yes, the idea is:

In one of the keys, my "Favorites" setting points to "C:\Users\gigaherz\Favorites"
then the "Documents" one should similarly be "C:\Users\gigaherz\Documents"

but on the other key, the value for "Favorites" was "%USERPROFILE%\Favorites"
and in the same way, "Documents" should also be "%USERPROFILE%\Documents"

"%USERPROFILE%" happens to be an environment variable pointing to your user folder, so it also points to "C:\Users\gigaherz" in my case, but it could be different in your pc so just set them so that Documents has the same base path as My Pictures, My Music My Video, Downloads, and/or Favorites.

 

[roving]

Many thanks to the poster that mentioned making the registry change and to the others who tried that and said that it worked! I had virtually the same problem and had moved my documents and the registry was pointing to the wrong location. I corrected that and it worked and I really appreciate it the information!