I had the same problem for some time and it always happened with some, but
not all, folders with graphics files. After running anti-ad and anti-spyware,
go to Irfanview.com and download the latest free viewer. In my case all of my
graphics files were associated with Photoshop and I had a little Photoshop
icon to the left of all my graphic filenames. It would take a very long time
to open my files and during the process that is when Explorer would crash and
display a well known and familiar error mesage. The moment I associated all
of my files with Irfanview, the icons all turned into the little red
character immediately and all functions in Windows Explorer were usable
including the Slide Show, etc. I hope this helps.