Windows: Explorer has stopped working (a possible fix)

win7[German]Sometimes Windows users are faced with the problem that the message 'Explorer has stopped working' appears. There are several steps to fix that issue. A blog reader contacted me recently and told me a (his) solution for this issue, which I will post here.


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Explorer has stopped working

The topic that the message 'Explorer has stopped working' has been covered in numerous web posts. Also crashes of the explorer, as a similar cause, has been discussed in blogs. The cause is mostly incompatible software components that register as shell handlers and cause trouble. I refer here to my very old German blog posts Windows Explorer oder die Shell macht Probleme and Startmenü oder Explorer geht nicht mehr/ist langsam, in which I discuss these problems and how to solve them.

A reader's solution

Blog reader torkel just contacted me by e-mail and told me about his experiences including the solution (thanks for that). Since it might be able to help other affected people, I will post it here. The current post is about a system of the blog-reader with Windows 7 64 Bit – 'all Winfuture updates installed', as the reader says. But the solution could also work for newer Windows versions. The blog reader wrote:

A few months ago I started my PC, it booted up and everything looked as usual – but then when trying to move the mouse (over) the taskbar – came the spinner and then a little later the message 'Explorer has stopped working' (the application is restarted then by Windows).

I restarted the computer – and then at the 2nd time after starting up everything works again and was fine.

All the tips I found in the internet I have basically implemented (Autostarts and the context menu reduced) – but without success – also sfc
/scannow there are no errors!

I'll have to use a different "cleanup program namely CleanAfterMe" – not CCleaner – and then the system ran without it for a while, that I had to start the computer always 2 times.

Until a few days ago – when the problem reappeared – and I mean it always happened after updates of programs.

In CleanAfterMe I found this path:

C:\Users\NAME\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Recent

there were 2 folders

AutomaticDestinations

and

CustomDestinations

The former folder was empty and the latter folder contained .customDestinations-ms files with older creation dates. These I saved with 7zip and then deleted the original. Later I changed the path to CCleaner added to custom folders and files. Before I switch off my computer I always let CCleaner clean the "garbage" – now also the .customDestinations-ms files (which, by the way always be created again with CURRENT date).

So far the Explorer has not hung up again ! As said – this is otherwise always done at the first system startup – i.e. startup – spinner on mouse over taskbar (which did not appear) – Error message – Restart the Explorer.

The blog reader says: Maybe this will help others as well. If so, you can leave a comment.


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