"windows explorer has stopped working"

[william.hooper]

There are five hundred hits on this in google but I can find no
answer.

I am getting a crash with message "windows explorer has stopped
working" everytime i try to drag and drop a menu item on the start bar
(using classic view).

This is occuring on a brand new machine and still occurs after a full
system restore.

Turning user account control prevents the crash but is obviously not
desirable.

Does any Vista MSVP here have a fix or explanation for this problem
please?

Please not the normal stupid suggestions.

 

[william.hooper]

The best I can find is this chain:

***********************************************
***********************************************
***********************************************

Luc Posts: n/a

Windows Explorer has stopped working

---------------------------------------------

Regularly the message, Windows Explorere has stopped working is
displayed, particularly when opening control pannel or control pannel
options. When is there a fix available?

***********************************************
***********************************************
***********************************************

Rick Rogers Posts: n/a

Re: Windows Explorer has stopped working

---------------------------------------------

Hi Luc,

A fix would only be made available if it were broken for many people.
For
most explorer is not broken, however I have seen it broken by the
addition
of spy/ad programs, incompatible shell enhancing programs, and other
software. You will need to selectively disable running programs to
decipher
which one is interfering with the shell on your system.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

Windows help - www.rickrogers.org

***********************************************
***********************************************
***********************************************

at http://forums.techarena.in/showthread.php?t=598170

 

[Max]

Assuming you mean the Start *Menu*.
Honestly, I have not seen this problem since the Beta's/RC's. It was a known
bug then (using Classic Menu), but was fixed (at least for me) with the
final release--which I assume you are using.
As a workaround, try right clicking the Start Orb, choose 'Explore All
Users' and see if you can drag/drop in the Start Menu as you like from
there.

Hope this reply was not normal and stupid.

 

[Malke]

There are five hundred hits on this in google but I can find no
answer.

I am getting a crash with message "windows explorer has stopped
working" everytime i try to drag and drop a menu item on the start bar
(using classic view).

This is occuring on a brand new machine and still occurs after a full
system restore.

Turning user account control prevents the crash but is obviously not
desirable.

Does any Vista MSVP here have a fix or explanation for this problem
please?

Please not the normal stupid suggestions.

You had a ton of responses when you posted this before. Yes, a lot of
those responses were stupid but a lot of them were not.

Basically, you were told (by me as well as other techs) that this is not
normal behavior and you should return the computer for replacement.
Playing around with software settings will not solve hardware problems
and that is probably what you have. It happens. New machine = get a
replacement immediately.


Malke

 

[Richard Urban]

You haven't taken your brand new computer back to the store yet?

--


Regards,

Richard Urban MVP
Microsoft Windows Shell/User

 

[Adam Albright]

You haven't taken your brand new computer back to the store yet?

You haven't stop pretending to be helpful yet?

 

[william.hooper]

The award goes to:

--------------------------------------------

Honestly, I have not seen this problem since the Beta's/RC's. It was a
known
bug then (using Classic Menu), but was fixed (at least for me) with
the
final release--which I assume you are using.

As a workaround, try right clicking the Start Orb, choose 'Explore
All
Users' and see if you can drag/drop in the Start Menu as you like
from
there.

--------------------------------------------

Makes it sound like a isolated bug not a symptom of an unstable
machine.
Also I learned something new... was wondering how to find the menu to
the
start menu since documents and settings\all users etc vanished.
However, this error does not occur on my other machine and I am real
wary of issues
so I will not live with it.

By the way many of the posts on this problem I found on google are
post release so
I guess it has not been fixed so well.

Before I return the machine I am going to try a clean install with a
copy of
vista that i have kicking around at home. Getting all the drivers to
work again
will be a weekends work.

If it fails I will restore again to the shop bought install and take
back to the shop
and demo the fault and hope they give me my two thousand pounds back.

Thanks for your help and thank god no one told me a reboot would solve
the problem.

 

[william.hooper]

Oh, and on the other post which degenerated into drivel a cool post
was added at the bottom which bears repeating:

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

On page 10 of the current edition of PC Plus there is an article
about r
DirectX which mentions that a Robert Preston, BBC Business Editor
wrote a letter to Bill Gates after buying a bug ridden Vista laptop.

Michael Chare

 

[ScrappingWA Moderator]

i am getting the exact same message on a machine that i have had since
june last year. only diffrence is i have installed vista on tuesday
(which is when it started happening) i have had IE7 on my pc since
last year with no problems, but IE7 on vista has a bug in it.. so i
would say its NOT THE MACHINE BUT A BIG BUG IN VISTA!!!!! which i am
already regretting putting on... only way i have found to get around
this problem is have a webpage up already before trying to open one
from email as if its closed thats when i get the message
Hope This Has Helpped

Nicole

 

[william.hooper]

I reckon your problem has a high chance of being some shell extension
software. Start uninstaling things you suspect. For me it's a real
pain because the bug occurs on a clean install of the Sony
configuration. Of course Sony are known for shipping lots of junk with
their OS. For me the only sensible course of action is to reinstall a
fresh vista, add the sony drivers and see if it's better - or
alternatively of course to take the machine back. Having put Vista on
a couple of machines myself I would say it's a little crazy to
purchase and install an upgrade. It's really early days for Vista and
the best advice would be to wait wait wait. Even buying a new machine
right now, especially a laptop, is something best avoided as my
experience shows. It's the first time Microsoft have caused this kind
of chaos... even the gigantic upgrade from Windows 3.1 to Windows 95
went smoothly. The terrible problems that are breaking a good
percentage of the worlds software are generally security related.
Amazingly Microsoft's flagship software is breaking as well - eg you
even need to upgrade to Outlook 2007 from Outlook XP to get full
compatibility with Vista. Basically, in fact, you need to think about
possibly needing to get new versions of everything from harware
drivers to iTunes to Outlook....

 

[Guest]

I had a similar problem in a fresh install of Vista Ultimate- everytime I
tried to do anything in the GUI (Explorer), I got an error, "Windows Explorer
has stopped working"... looking for solutions, "Windows Explorer is
restarting..." It seemed that there was no end in sight. Most search
engine hits point to problems with shell extensions. This is not the case,
but instead a bug in Vista where it cannot recover is a temporary cache
database file is corrupted. Pretty sad, I think. Nonetheless, I figured out
a solution.

Check the event viewer to see what is causing the error. Open the Task
Manager (CNTRL ALT DEL, start Task Manager), then from the Task Manager
program, select File-Run from the menu. Type MSCONFIG. You may have to try
these steps several times as the crashing Explorer will probably get in the
way. In my case, Explorer crashes mostly did not affect secondary apps (i.e.
Task Manager and Msconfig). In Msconfig, select the Tools tab and select
Event Viewer and click Launch. In Event Viewer, open up Applications to see
what errors you are getting.

If "C:\Users\[username]\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Explorer\***.db" is
causing the problem, you need to delete the *.db file in that directory. But
because Explorer is crashing, you obviously can't do this from a window. Go
back to Task Manager and type, "runas /user:[username that has administrative
rights] cmd"

You will be asked for you password. Enter it. Now browse to the directory
with the *.db files that are causing problems and delete them. They are
temporary thumbnail caches. One or more are are probably corrupt. As soon
as you delete these files, Vista should run just fine.

Hope this helps,
-Brad

 

[zachd [MSFT]]

When you submit the crash report, you should get a crash bucket number in
the Problem Reports and Solutions center -- what is that number?
http://zachd.com/pss/pss.html#bucket
can help you look that up if you need the help.