I have a problem with Vista - Windows Explorer keeps crashing

[Windows Explorer keeps Crashing]

I am having exactly the same problem. I am using an external database that I
am accessing through the internet - it has crashed 4 times in the last 30
minutes - I have to reboot and start all over again. My work colleague got
fed up with this and re-installed XP. I know nothing about computers so I
guess its back to Circuit City! I can add this failure to the error I found
in excel a few weeks ago that Microsoft say they are sorting with a patch -
no too good eh!

 

[Rick Rogers]

Hi,

As I have three Vista installs here at home that are over a year old that
have never had an instance of WE "not responding", I can safely say that
there is not an inherent problem with the registry settings that relate to
it. These include 2 custom builds of my own as well as a preinstalled HP
laptop, so it's nothing special I did other than practice safe hex.

The single biggest cause of this problem is malware (including both
spy/adware and viruses) that the user has allowed to be installed on the
system. The second is incompatible software, mainly those that include shell
enhancement features. Registry cleaners themselves are more frequently the
cause and not the solution and can often make matters worse.

As your installation is not that old, the easiest solution would be to
follow Lenovo's instructions for a factory recovery and start with a clean
slate.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

Windows help - www.rickrogers.org
My thoughts http://rick-mvp.blogspot.com

"CLoweWithVistaWoes" <[email protected]>
wrote in message

I just purchased a brand new Lenovo I-Pad about two weeks ago with Vista
Home Premium pre-installed. It took me less than an hour after I first
fired up my new machine for the "Windows Explorer is not responding"
[hungapp] crashes to start. Since then, this hungapp message, followed
by the ". . . checking for problems" and then "no (known) solutions
found" messages have been a consistent & constant source of computing
joy for me.

From the various posts I've read here on the Vista Heads site and some
other sites, including ZDNet & PC World, it sounds like Vista Home
Premium may have some inherently faulty registry keys [????] and is
particularly susceptible to a whole host of bugs, including "registry
fix" malware invasions. Even those who have "stripped down" their OSs
to the bare bones of Vista Home Prem still seem to be reporting this "W.
E. . . not responding" problem.

fwiw - for the time being anyway - I have run CA Internet Security
Suite's virus and spyware scans on my system and, after I quarantined
three problems caught with the latter scan, my system seems to be
running a bit more smoothly. I had earlier downloaded and run RegCure
by ParetoLogic, but that did not fix the ". . . not responding" crashes.


Short of going back to XP or ditching my current laptop for a MacBook,
I want to know if there are some general solutions, e.g., a list of
known registry bugs in Home Premium, out there that newbies like me can
refer to in case my recent CA spyware scan fixes haven't adequately
resolved my hungapp issues.

Thanks and good luck to everyone else out there who has been dealing
with this "Windows Explorer is not responding" problem with their Vista
Home Premium OSs.

 

[Charlie Tame]

Rick [Nutcase]:

Thanks for your reply. You may be right about the "Windows Explorer is
not responding" problem being caused by inadvertently installed spyware
and malware. I say this because it seems that my CA Security spyware
scan and fix a day or so ago has resolved this hungapp issue on my
machine. Still, it is concerning that so many Windows Vista Home
Premium users have reported this problem when initially starting their
newly purchased computers. Does this mean that new machines like mine
are being sold to consumers with spyware and malware pre-installed?

Thanks again for your post.

If you are still around it has been my experience that add ons and
toolbars almost all upset IE eventually. You would think Yahoo and
Google for example should be alright, but I have found they are not. I
suspect that this is a kind of merry go round, the toolbar is written
and works, Microsoft update IE which breaks the relationship, Yahoo or
whatever updates their software but breaks some other relationship and
so it goes on.

A lot of the stuff manufacturers put on there is designed for the
version of Vista that ships with the machine, but of course as soon as
you get it there will be updates, and quite likely there is some
guideline that hasn't been followed or has had to be changed for
security reasons between shipping and first use. Microsoft can't
possibly know where these missed guidelines are, and the OEMs can't
possibly predict where Microsoft will be forced to change something, so
best to avoid add ons unless you actually do need them. Many people
clean off OEM stuff right away.