Acer, MyWinLocker and ‘Explorer has stopped working’

[German]Today a short troubleshooting article for owners of Acer notebooks who are suddenly confronted with the error message 'Explorer stop working' during file operations.

Error descriptions of affected persons

The subject was 'bowled up' to me during sport. Somebody asks me, if I have an idea to solve his problem. His notebook with Windows 7 causes problems. He intended to save some personal data, because he planned to switch to a new notebook. His attempt, to back up data by burning it to DVD failed. Whenever he wanted to copy files to the DVD burner using Explorer, it would say goodbye with the message 'Explorer has stopped working'.

Attempting to use a USB stick as the target medium for backup showed the same result. Because there can be many reasons and I didn't have any details about the device, I gave the tip to try System Restore. The user told me, that this had already been unsuccessfully attempted. I then advised them to have the device checked by an IT technician – because everything from software to malware to broken hardware is in it.

Machine fixed, 'Windows Lock' was to blame…

One week later, I got the feedback, that the user had found an Acer forum claiming preinstalled program Windows Lock(er) is causing that issue. He uninstalled the program and the issue with the crashing Explorer was solved. I noticed these snippets of information to make a blog post.

Acer and the MyWinLocker Suite

Searching the Internet for details brought me quickly to the idea, that 'Windows Lock' means the MyWinLocker Suite. According to this Acer web article MyWinLocker Suite is preinstalled Acer software:

MyWinLocker Suite is a preinstalled program available on selected Acer products to help you protect your private data. It includes two applications: Yo-Safe, a password-protected virtual drive, and Shredder, a secure tool to remove files.

The Yo-Safe virtual drive acts as an extra hard drive in your system. You can access it only with your password, so the stored files are kept safe.

EgisTec Shredder is a data shredding software to help you delete your sensitive data permanently. EgisTec Shredder is a limited trial version. The first time you launch the program, a pop-up window will notify that you are running a trial version.

A software that no one needs, but which the OEMs are happily shipping on customers systems.

Further problem descriptions and diagnosis

Searching the Internet with 'Acer + Explorer stop working' returns hits like this MS Answers forum entry:

windows explorer stopped working when I copy/ drag file from drive to drive

all of a sudden, I receive following error message when I try to "copy" and "paste" file from one drive to another drive; i.e. "c" drive to "d" drive/ flash drive/ sd card:

"windows explorer has stopped working…. windows explorer is restarting"

weird part is I can do "cut" and "paste" file from one drive to another drive.

I can also do copy/cut and paste within the same drive

This is a clear indication to me, that a faulty shell handler installed from a third party tool is causing this issue. I've written serveral German blog posts how to handle this (Windows 8.1: Explorer stürzt ab and Windows Explorer oder die Shell macht Probleme). There I showed how to use the Nirsoft tool ShellExView to diagnose problems, find the cause and allow or block shell extensions. Microsoft has also published an article for Windows 7 that identifies causes.

Issue caused by Acer MyWinLocker Suite

However, this diagnosis wasn't necessary in the current case. With the keywords Acer and 'Explorer stopp working' you don't need to search any further – it is named here for example: MyWinLocker. So uninstall the program via control panel and restart Windows.