Windows Explorer constantly crashing.

[Chris]

I know this will be a difficult question to answer, but I would welcome any
ideas to follow up. I am using XP Pro SP1 with all updates (apart from SP2). The
disk has been checked for spyware and viruses with up-to-date scanners.

The Windows Explorer shell often crashes when opening another folder/window or
launching a program, perhaps one in ten times. It does not crash otherwise. This
has been happening for quite some time, but appears to be getting more frequent.
There is no apparent pattern to it. Opening any folder or launching any program
may trigger the crash. Usually the desktop just goes blank (i.e all the icons or
open folders disappear) and then it re-starts after 5-10 seconds.

Please note: I am referring to Window Explorer, and NOT Internet Explorer!

Chris.

 

[Niels]

I know this will be a difficult question to answer, but I would welcome any
ideas to follow up. I am using XP Pro SP1 with all updates (apart from SP2). The
disk has been checked for spyware and viruses with up-to-date scanners.

The Windows Explorer shell often crashes when opening another folder/window or
launching a program, perhaps one in ten times. It does not crash otherwise. This
has been happening for quite some time, but appears to be getting more frequent.
There is no apparent pattern to it. Opening any folder or launching any program
may trigger the crash. Usually the desktop just goes blank (i.e all the icons or
open folders disappear) and then it re-starts after 5-10 seconds.

Please note: I am referring to Window Explorer, and NOT Internet Explorer!

Chris.

Default I do a hard drive check to make sure there are no bad sectors or
whatsoever. Off course the virus scanner and spyware scanner is an app
to run if not running default.

First of all it looks like corrupt files caused by bad sectors on the disk.

 

[Chris]

Default I do a hard drive check to make sure there are no bad sectors or
whatsoever. Off course the virus scanner and spyware scanner is an app
to run if not running default.

First of all it looks like corrupt files caused by bad sectors on the disk.

Thank for that suggestion. I have just run a HD check for defective sectors and
it reported no errors.

Chris.

 

[Rock]

I know this will be a difficult question to answer, but I would welcome any
ideas to follow up. I am using XP Pro SP1 with all updates (apart from SP2). The
disk has been checked for spyware and viruses with up-to-date scanners.

The Windows Explorer shell often crashes when opening another folder/window or
launching a program, perhaps one in ten times. It does not crash otherwise. This
has been happening for quite some time, but appears to be getting more frequent.
There is no apparent pattern to it. Opening any folder or launching any program
may trigger the crash. Usually the desktop just goes blank (i.e all the icons or
open folders disappear) and then it re-starts after 5-10 seconds.

Please note: I am referring to Window Explorer, and NOT Internet Explorer!

Chris.

Are there any error messages in event viewer that might give a clue?

 

[Don Taylor]

I know this will be a difficult question to answer, but I would
welcome any ideas to follow up. I am using XP Pro SP1 with all
updates (apart from SP2). The disk has been checked for spyware and
viruses with up-to-date scanners.

The Windows Explorer shell often crashes when opening another
folder/window or launching a program, perhaps one in ten times. It
does not crash otherwise. This has been happening for quite some
time, but appears to be getting more frequent. There is no apparent
pattern to it. Opening any folder or launching any program may
trigger the crash. Usually the desktop just goes blank (i.e all the
icons or open folders disappear) and then it re-starts after 5-10
seconds.

Please note: I am referring to Window Explorer, and NOT Internet
Explorer!

See if any of these work, and which ones don't. Maybe that will give
some clues.

Some find it will work when you boot in safe mode.

And, some find it will work when you create a new user and switch
to that user to try it.

Some claim it is all spyware and viruses but I haven't seen any
posting that confirmed this for the Windows Explorer problem.
I carefully and repeatedly checked, no viruses or spyware and my
windows explorer locks up every time. But you can check.

Some claim it is "ShellExtensions", little accessory gadgets that
sort of script extra cute features. The advice for that is to
install free ShellExView and to try (carefully) disabling these
features one at a time, if turning one off doesn't do anything then
turn it back on and try again. I did that with all 75 at once and
it made no difference at all. One person sent me mail saying that
disabling one extension he had did appear to fix his problem.

I hope this helps. If someone tells you to try something and it
doesn't help then please make a posting so we can start accumulating
what suggestions don't do any good.

 

[Chris]

Are there any error messages in event viewer that might give a clue?

There are a couple that say "The shell stopped unexpectedly and Explorer.exe was
restarted." which not really much help as I already know the shell stopped!
It appears that most times nothing is recorded in the event log.

Chris.

 

[Chris]

See if any of these work, and which ones don't. Maybe that will give
some clues.

Some find it will work when you boot in safe mode.

And, some find it will work when you create a new user and switch
to that user to try it.

Some claim it is all spyware and viruses but I haven't seen any
posting that confirmed this for the Windows Explorer problem.
I carefully and repeatedly checked, no viruses or spyware and my
windows explorer locks up every time. But you can check.

Some claim it is "ShellExtensions", little accessory gadgets that
sort of script extra cute features. The advice for that is to
install free ShellExView and to try (carefully) disabling these
features one at a time, if turning one off doesn't do anything then
turn it back on and try again. I did that with all 75 at once and
it made no difference at all. One person sent me mail saying that
disabling one extension he had did appear to fix his problem.

I hope this helps. If someone tells you to try something and it
doesn't help then please make a posting so we can start accumulating
what suggestions don't do any good.

Thanks for all the suggestions.

I don't think running in Safe Mode will help, as it is not a "repeatable"
problem. It can sometimes go all day in normal mode without crashing once, so
not crashing in safe mode would not in itself prove anything.

I am sure there is no spyware or viruses on the system. Virus scanned with AVG,
AntiVir and McAfee, and checked with Ad-aware, Spybot and PestPatrol (all
up-to-date).

"Shell extensions" were something I was very suspicious of. So much software
seems to add entries to the drop-down menus. I have removed several that seemed
unnecessary, but I will try ShellExView and disable the rest.

Chris.

 

[Don Taylor]

Thanks for all the suggestions.

I don't think running in Safe Mode will help, as it is not a "repeatable"
problem. It can sometimes go all day in normal mode without crashing once, so
not crashing in safe mode would not in itself prove anything.

I understand, and none of those suggestions was really "the fix"
for anything. But if you could get some confidence that it was
related to one of them that might provide a clue for someone.

I am sure there is no spyware or viruses on the system. Virus scanned with AVG,
AntiVir and McAfee, and checked with Ad-aware, Spybot and PestPatrol (all
up-to-date).

Same here

"Shell extensions" were something I was very suspicious of. So much software
seems to add entries to the drop-down menus. I have removed several that seemed
unnecessary, but I will try ShellExView and disable the rest.

As I said, I tried that and didn't get any success.
However, you might be surprised how much of the desktop
stops operating as you expect if you turn off all of
them, as I finally did. And even when I turned them
back on I found I had to manually go back and fix the
quick launch bar, and tweak other things to get it back
to what I think the original state was. So be prepared.

If none of those things help then please report that,
we need to accumulate what some of the useless superstition
is in these suggestions for people to do things.

Thanks

 

[Chris]

seemed unnecessary, but I will try ShellExView and disable the rest.

As I said, I tried that and didn't get any success.
However, you might be surprised how much of the desktop
stops operating as you expect if you turn off all of
them, as I finally did. And even when I turned them
back on I found I had to manually go back and fix the
quick launch bar, and tweak other things to get it back
to what I think the original state was. So be prepared.

If none of those things help then please report that,
we need to accumulate what some of the useless superstition
is in these suggestions for people to do things.

Thanks

For now, I have just disabled all the non-microsoft entries, including some
"leftovers" from programs that have been un-installed. I will see how that goes
for a while before trying the Microsoft entries, as they seem (mostly) to be
part of Windows itself.

It may all be a waste of time in the end, but we have to try...

Chris.

 

[Guest]

I have been having the same problem for a while and finally I got the
solution !!!
After trying a lot of things (looking for spyware, worms and viruses,
installing SP2, updating drivers, using shexview...) i tried disabling some
services and the key was ClipBook (clipsvr.exe), the one that enables
ClipBook Viewer to store information and share it with remote computers. (not
a actually useful one). I turned it off and I could open as many windows as i
wanted, ¡¡¡ after 3 moths with that shit!!!
I hope that will help you too. Let me know if so.
Bye!!!

 

[Don Taylor]

I have been having the same problem for a while and finally I got the
solution !!!
After trying a lot of things (looking for spyware, worms and viruses,
installing SP2, updating drivers, using shexview...) i tried disabling some
services and the key was ClipBook (clipsvr.exe), the one that enables
ClipBook Viewer to store information and share it with remote computers. (not
a actually useful one). I turned it off and I could open as many windows as i
wanted, after 3 moths with that shit!!!
I hope that will help you too. Let me know if so.
Bye!!!

RATS! I was hoping you had discovered something that fixed Windows Explorer.

But when I checked I found I've had ClipBook disabled and probably has been
for a long time.

If you stumble onto anything else to help fix this please let me know.
thanks

 

[Rock]

I have been having the same problem for a while and finally I got the
solution !!!
After trying a lot of things (looking for spyware, worms and viruses,
installing SP2, updating drivers, using shexview...) i tried disabling some
services and the key was ClipBook (clipsvr.exe), the one that enables
ClipBook Viewer to store information and share it with remote computers. (not
a actually useful one). I turned it off and I could open as many windows as i
wanted, ¡¡¡ after 3 moths with that shit!!!
I hope that will help you too. Let me know if so.
Bye!!!

Thanks for posting that Felix.