Windows Explorer crashes on right click and opening folder

Xenios

New Member
Messages
6
Hello!

About since I installed jdownloader this afternoon (and afterwards removed "search protect" with AdwCleaner and Malwarebyte Anti-Malware), my Windows explorer regularly freezes.
It does so whenever I do a right-click on any folder or disk or on the free space inside a folder or disk.
It also crashes whenever I open folder, which I have not recently opened or to which I added a big file (bigger than about 1 MB) recently. I could open some folders since this error came up but after adding a file to them, this is not possible anymore. Windows explorer being able to open some folders is probably due to it cashing/indexing some information.
I can read everything using cmd (cd & dir) and execute files directly though.

In safe mode Windows explorer works fine.

What I did so far:
- Following this guide (Right-click is slow or weird behavior caused by context menu handlers) I removed all the handlers in the registry in HKCR\AllFileSystemObjects\shellex\contextmenuhandlers, HKCR\Folder\shellex\contextmenuhandlers and HKCR\Directory\shellex\contextmenuhandlers. Deletion of one handle in HKCR\Directory\shellex\contextmenuhandlers called "WorkFolders" only produces an error. I therefore could not delete this one. It did not help. Afterwards I recovered the registry keys.
- I used system recovery to switch back to a state from the day before yesterday.
- I tried disabling all the files in auto-start using the task-manager with no improvement.
- I ran "sfc /scannow", which told me there were some files it was unable to repair. I digged into the log and found the file sfc talked about. The file was completely missing. I got a copy from my notebook and managed to copy that file into the folder. But it didn't help.

What's more, I could not rerun sfc to see if the sfc-error persisted, because my computer froze during login after the restart (during which I also installed some minor Windows updates) and I had to force a restart. This brought up a bluescreen on the first two following restarts. On the third one, recovery came up and I chose automatic repair. After that the system could start again, but "sfc /scannow" now throws an error saying "There is a system repair pending which requires reboot to complete. Restart ...". I tried running "dims.exe /image:C:\ /cleanup-image /revertpendingactions" in the recovery console, which threw an error saying that it was unable to complete. I also tried rerunning the startup repair, which told me it was unsuccessful. sfc is still not running.

Additionally, and I think this started at about the same time, Avira cannot start its real-time protection anymore. I don't get any useful information out of it, just that it encountered some error. I reinstalled it twice, to no avail.

Any solutions for the Windows Explorer crashes? As you can see, I have already tried a lot, but nothing seems to solve my problem. :-/
Help would be much appreciated! :)
 
Last edited:

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 64bit
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    CPU
    Intel Core i5 750
    Motherboard
    Asus P7P55D-E
    Memory
    8GB Corsair XMS3 DDR3
    Graphics Card(s)
    AMD Radeon 7950
    Browser
    Firefox
    Antivirus
    Avira Antivir
Windows Explorer is one of the most important program in Windows. When you open it, it does lots of things in the background such as updating the registry, updating the start menu etc...
Most of the problems are caused by Shell Extensions and I know you did some registry tweaks. However, before you go on, you need to run from the elevated command prompt:
  1. dism /online /cleanup-image /restorehealth
  2. sfc /scannow <== Might have to run multiple times until you get the message: Windows did not find any integrity violation.
  3. Then use this link: http://www.eightforums.com/performance-maintenance/19373-right-click-menu-lag-my-pc.html#post187343
 

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
"dism /online /cleanup-image /restorehealth" finished and seemed to be successful. But sfc /scannow still throws the same error about a system repair that needs a restart.

I managed to unzip and run ShellExView using only the command prompt (since explorer crashes when opening any folder) and disabled not only the Context Menu extensions but all third party extensions. It did not change anything.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 64bit
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    CPU
    Intel Core i5 750
    Motherboard
    Asus P7P55D-E
    Memory
    8GB Corsair XMS3 DDR3
    Graphics Card(s)
    AMD Radeon 7950
    Browser
    Firefox
    Antivirus
    Avira Antivir
As said above, you need to run sfc /scannow again until you get a clean message.
 

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
Last edited:

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 64bit
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    CPU
    Intel Core i5 750
    Motherboard
    Asus P7P55D-E
    Memory
    8GB Corsair XMS3 DDR3
    Graphics Card(s)
    AMD Radeon 7950
    Browser
    Firefox
    Antivirus
    Avira Antivir
Yes, I think it's enough. I guess while running sfc, some system files have been used by Windows and could not be replaced.
Let's try running it offline:
  1. Open the Admin Command Prompt then copy and paste this command: shutdown /r /o /t 0 <==== Will restart into recovery environment
  2. Click on: Trouble Shoot->Advanced->Command Prompt
  3. then type: sfc /scannow /offbootdir=c:\ /offwindir=c:\windows
This will take a while.
 

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
I tried running sfc in offline mode and it did not work.

But then I deleted the pending.xml file (or rather: moved it to some other folder) and then sfc worked again! sfc told me on the very first run that it did not find any integrity violation.

But it didn't change anything significant and my explorer is still crashing all the time (I'm getting used to moving around in command line now...)
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 64bit
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    CPU
    Intel Core i5 750
    Motherboard
    Asus P7P55D-E
    Memory
    8GB Corsair XMS3 DDR3
    Graphics Card(s)
    AMD Radeon 7950
    Browser
    Firefox
    Antivirus
    Avira Antivir
But then I deleted the pending.xml file (or rather: moved it to some other folder) and then sfc worked again! sfc told me on the very first run that it did not find any integrity violation.
Very interesting. BTW, did you check all the programs that run at startup ? Open task manager->Startup and disable everything in this tab, restart to see if explorer stops crashing.
 

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
Yes, I have done that already. After seeing that the explorer was still working in safe mode, I deactivated everything in the startup tab of the task manager, but it did not help. I repeated the procedure now with the same outcome (none).
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 64bit
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    CPU
    Intel Core i5 750
    Motherboard
    Asus P7P55D-E
    Memory
    8GB Corsair XMS3 DDR3
    Graphics Card(s)
    AMD Radeon 7950
    Browser
    Firefox
    Antivirus
    Avira Antivir
Hmm, no more ideas? Anyone? Do I really need to reinstall Windows?

edit:
Whatever, I just reinstalled Windows. Should have done that earlier instead of messing around with this for so long. Thank you for the help, though!
 
Last edited:

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 64bit
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    CPU
    Intel Core i5 750
    Motherboard
    Asus P7P55D-E
    Memory
    8GB Corsair XMS3 DDR3
    Graphics Card(s)
    AMD Radeon 7950
    Browser
    Firefox
    Antivirus
    Avira Antivir
windows crashes on right click file/folder

Twice now I have had this right click problem. When I tried to right click a folder in windows explorer it would immediately bring up an error message that windows explorer has stopped working, restart, or look for solutions online, etc. After going through a lot of forums, trying their solutions to no avail, I finally boiled it down to Mozilla Firefox causing the problem. I uninstalled Firefox and that fixed the problem. When this happened to me a second time I found myself going thru the same steps again but something in the back of my mind kept telling me that I've been here before and I tried to remember what I did the last time. Something in the event logs or task manager pointed it that direction and I just uninstalled firefox, problem solved.

rodeohog :thumb:
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    windows 7 ultimate
Back
Top