Windows 8, explorer.exe is missing.

AdrenalineKot

New Member
Messages
9
Hello

I got a situation with my desktop. After I start the laptop, desktop is black and has only white cursor on it. I tried to run explorer.exe via task manager. It says error, can not run the file. Went directly to the file directory via browsing inside task manager, and it is not even in the system folder.

Tried to open in a safe mode, same thing!

For over an hour looking for it in forums, but everybody with my kind of situation could at least find explorer.exe to restart it. I don't even have it in the system, don't know how it is possible, I never deleted it. Full system recovery is not an option!

Laptop: HP
OS: Windows 8 (not sure if it is 8.1)
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    windows 8
Hi AdrenalineKot and welcome to Eight Forums :party:,
These Looks a job for sfc/scannow command in cmd :)
Hope that helps.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 10
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    HP
    CPU
    Intel Core i7
    Graphics Card(s)
    Nvidia Geforce GTX 680
    Sound Card
    idfk
    Screen Resolution
    15' 1080p display
    Internet Speed
    70Mbps
    Browser
    Google Chrome Canary
    Antivirus
    AVAST Premiere 2015
Okay:
_Open the charms bar by pointing the mouse to the top left corner then click search then type in "command" then right click the first one and click run as administrator then paste sfc/scannow command and click enter and let it do its job.
You want to know what does sfc/scannow do, SFC means System File Checker and it will search for any system files that are missing or correpted and hopefully it will find that explorer.exe and it will fix it.
Hope that helps.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 10
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    HP
    CPU
    Intel Core i7
    Graphics Card(s)
    Nvidia Geforce GTX 680
    Sound Card
    idfk
    Screen Resolution
    15' 1080p display
    Internet Speed
    70Mbps
    Browser
    Google Chrome Canary
    Antivirus
    AVAST Premiere 2015
Run --- Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth --- too.

Sfc then dism then sfc again.---

Some pictures----

To get elevated command prompt---

screenshot_124.jpg

Then---

screenshot_124.jpg

screenshot_124.jpg

Hope this helps. :)
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1.1 Pro with Media Center
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Gateway
    CPU
    AMD K140 Cores 2 Threads 2 Name AMD K140 Package Socket FT1 BGA Technology 40nm
    Motherboard
    Manufacturer Gateway Model SX2110G (P0)
    Memory
    Type DDR3 Size 8192 MBytes DRAM Frequency 532.3 MHz
    Graphics Card(s)
    ATI AMD Radeon HD 7310 Graphics
    Sound Card
    AMD High Definition Audio Device Realtek High Definition Audio USB Audio Device
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Name 1950W on AMD Radeon HD 7310 Graphics Current Resolution 1366x768 pixels Work Resolution 1366x76
    Screen Resolution
    Current Resolution 1366x768 pixels Work Resolution 1366x768 pixels
    Hard Drives
    AMD K140
    Cores 2
    Threads 2
    Name AMD K140
    Package Socket FT1 BGA
    Technology 40nm
    Specification AMD E1-1200 APU with Radeon HD Graphics
    Family F
    Extended Family 14
    Model 2
    Extended Model 2
    Stepping 0
    Revision ON-C0
    Instruction
    Browser
    Opera 24.0
    Antivirus
    Avast Internet Security
Just a note on explorer.exe----

If you want to try working with it from its' location see picture---

screenshot_124.jpg
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1.1 Pro with Media Center
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Gateway
    CPU
    AMD K140 Cores 2 Threads 2 Name AMD K140 Package Socket FT1 BGA Technology 40nm
    Motherboard
    Manufacturer Gateway Model SX2110G (P0)
    Memory
    Type DDR3 Size 8192 MBytes DRAM Frequency 532.3 MHz
    Graphics Card(s)
    ATI AMD Radeon HD 7310 Graphics
    Sound Card
    AMD High Definition Audio Device Realtek High Definition Audio USB Audio Device
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Name 1950W on AMD Radeon HD 7310 Graphics Current Resolution 1366x768 pixels Work Resolution 1366x76
    Screen Resolution
    Current Resolution 1366x768 pixels Work Resolution 1366x768 pixels
    Hard Drives
    AMD K140
    Cores 2
    Threads 2
    Name AMD K140
    Package Socket FT1 BGA
    Technology 40nm
    Specification AMD E1-1200 APU with Radeon HD Graphics
    Family F
    Extended Family 14
    Model 2
    Extended Model 2
    Stepping 0
    Revision ON-C0
    Instruction
    Browser
    Opera 24.0
    Antivirus
    Avast Internet Security
Just a note on explorer.exe----

If you want to try working with it from its' location see picture---

View attachment 49946

sysWOW64 does not exist in Windows 8/8.1 32bit. If OP is running Windows 8/8.1 32 bit then the location for it is: C:\Windows\explorer.exe.

In Windows 8/8.1 64bit, the version of expolorer.exe in C:\Windows\sysWOW64 is a 32 bit version. 64bit version of explorer.exe would also be in C:\Windows\explorer.exe
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    8.1x64PWMC Ubuntu14.04x64 MintMate17x64
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Home Brewed
    CPU
    I7 4970K OC'ed @4.7 GHz
    Motherboard
    MSI-Z97
    Memory
    16 GB G-Skill Trident X @2400MHZ
    Graphics Card(s)
    NVIDIA GeForce GTS 450
    Sound Card
    X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Professional Series
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Dual HP-W2408
    Screen Resolution
    1920X1200
    Hard Drives
    256 GB M2 sm951, (2) 500GB 850EVO, 5TB, 2 TB Seagate
    PSU
    Antec 850W
    Case
    Antec 1200
    Cooling
    Danger Den H20
    Keyboard
    Logitech
    Mouse
    Logitech Performance Mouse MX
    Internet Speed
    35/12mbps
    Browser
    Firefox
From the task manager, can you open a command prompt and type: cd:\Windows then type: dir explorer.exe to see if it exists there.
BTW, are you running 64 bit or 32 bit ?
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    8.1x64PWMC Ubuntu14.04x64 MintMate17x64
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Home Brewed
    CPU
    I7 4970K OC'ed @4.7 GHz
    Motherboard
    MSI-Z97
    Memory
    16 GB G-Skill Trident X @2400MHZ
    Graphics Card(s)
    NVIDIA GeForce GTS 450
    Sound Card
    X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Professional Series
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Dual HP-W2408
    Screen Resolution
    1920X1200
    Hard Drives
    256 GB M2 sm951, (2) 500GB 850EVO, 5TB, 2 TB Seagate
    PSU
    Antec 850W
    Case
    Antec 1200
    Cooling
    Danger Den H20
    Keyboard
    Logitech
    Mouse
    Logitech Performance Mouse MX
    Internet Speed
    35/12mbps
    Browser
    Firefox
OK, from Command prompt, try what David suggested above:
Type:Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth
Type:sfc /scannow <====== Might need to run multiple times until you get a message : Windows did not find any integrity violation.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    8.1x64PWMC Ubuntu14.04x64 MintMate17x64
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Home Brewed
    CPU
    I7 4970K OC'ed @4.7 GHz
    Motherboard
    MSI-Z97
    Memory
    16 GB G-Skill Trident X @2400MHZ
    Graphics Card(s)
    NVIDIA GeForce GTS 450
    Sound Card
    X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Professional Series
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Dual HP-W2408
    Screen Resolution
    1920X1200
    Hard Drives
    256 GB M2 sm951, (2) 500GB 850EVO, 5TB, 2 TB Seagate
    PSU
    Antec 850W
    Case
    Antec 1200
    Cooling
    Danger Den H20
    Keyboard
    Logitech
    Mouse
    Logitech Performance Mouse MX
    Internet Speed
    35/12mbps
    Browser
    Firefox
You need to have spaces in front of the slashes:
Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    8.1x64PWMC Ubuntu14.04x64 MintMate17x64
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Home Brewed
    CPU
    I7 4970K OC'ed @4.7 GHz
    Motherboard
    MSI-Z97
    Memory
    16 GB G-Skill Trident X @2400MHZ
    Graphics Card(s)
    NVIDIA GeForce GTS 450
    Sound Card
    X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Professional Series
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Dual HP-W2408
    Screen Resolution
    1920X1200
    Hard Drives
    256 GB M2 sm951, (2) 500GB 850EVO, 5TB, 2 TB Seagate
    PSU
    Antec 850W
    Case
    Antec 1200
    Cooling
    Danger Den H20
    Keyboard
    Logitech
    Mouse
    Logitech Performance Mouse MX
    Internet Speed
    35/12mbps
    Browser
    Firefox
Can you go and pickup that DISM.log file and upload it here.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 10
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    HP
    CPU
    Intel Core i7
    Graphics Card(s)
    Nvidia Geforce GTX 680
    Sound Card
    idfk
    Screen Resolution
    15' 1080p display
    Internet Speed
    70Mbps
    Browser
    Google Chrome Canary
    Antivirus
    AVAST Premiere 2015
Can you upload it plz i cant see anything.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 10
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    HP
    CPU
    Intel Core i7
    Graphics Card(s)
    Nvidia Geforce GTX 680
    Sound Card
    idfk
    Screen Resolution
    15' 1080p display
    Internet Speed
    70Mbps
    Browser
    Google Chrome Canary
    Antivirus
    AVAST Premiere 2015
Hi. I discovered that windows 8.1 is not expanding %SystemRoot% (or any of the other environment variables in PATH) due to a bug in windows that needs to be patched. so until then, in a cmd shell [windows-logo-flag-key]-R cmd [enter] type
set
click the upper-left hand corner of the cmd shell window, properties, turn on quickedit, OK.
and then you can highlight with the mouse and hit [enter] to copy entries from the cmd shell to get the expanded values to paste into your PATH (ctrl-v, click first or you could replace the whole PATH variable!). [windows-logo-flag-key]-[pause/break], advanced, environment variables, system, Path, edit or double-click
your PATH should include C:\Windows\SysWOW64 in order to find explorer.exe

there are also some DLLs that only work in that folder, and windows 7 doesn't put SysWOW64 into the PATH by default the last time I checked, but windows 8.1 does, so some open source software may not work on windows 7 until you do.

SysWOW64 has the 32-bit binaries, system32 has the 64-bit stuff.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    XP now, winxp, 7ult+8pro soon
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
Back
Top