Computer Problem/Question

[Bailey Guns]

Fired up my Win 10 PC this morning. Everything seemed fine. But I cant open any file or folder regardless of how I try. When I click on a folder from the desktop the screen just refreshes. No error msg, no nothing. I can open a browser...but internet isnt yet connected so that doesn't do me much good. I tried a reset but it went thru the process then displayed a msg that said it could not be reset. Any ideas?

[Gman]

Probably can't be reset until it can connect to the web to download any needed updates.

Does the mouse/trackpad behave correctly in all other interactions with the system? Are the folders actually on your desktop, or are they shortcuts to a remote location (like a NAS or cloud storage (like OneDrive/Google Drive))? Is the folder path to an attached storage device that isn't currently attached? Did you have other devices on your home network in Idaho that don't exist at your new place? Have you tried letting it sit for a while after you try to open the folder to see if something is attempting to connect and then times out?

ETA: I did a web search and some people had problems with File Explorer when using a custom display scaling. You might try using a standard scaling setting or even just 100% to see if it's related.

ETA: When do you expect to have Internet connectivity? Do you have a smartphone that you can use as a hotspot to see if it's Internet connectivity related (easy if your PC is a laptop)?

[CS1983]

I’m coming up with a similar answer of display settings:

https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/windows/en-US/96fcc69e-ece6-47fa-aafa-106f46127c5d/cant-open-any-file-folders-w-windows-10?forum=win10itprogeneral

Right click desktop and adjust to recommended settings.

If that doesn’t work, I dunno.

[Gman]

Could be a corrupted user profile, but I'm not feeling that yet.

[colorider]

Unplug. Plug back in.

[Gman]

Unplug. Plug back in.


http://youtu.be/5UT8RkSmN4k

[battlemidget]

This sounds like a job for SFC and maybe a DISM.

Check out this article
https://www.howtogeek.com/222532/how-to-repair-corrupted-windows-system-files-with-the-sfc-and-dism-commands/

feel free to pm me if you have questions.

[Frac]

When I click on a folder from the desktop the screen just refreshes. No error msg, no nothing.
When you describe it as the screen refreshing, is this what happens? You click a folder and the icons on the desktop disappear and then reappear like when you start up the pc. Is that what you see?

If so, explorer.exe is crashing for some reason.



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[Gman]

Yeah, there's probably more info in the Windows System & Application logs.

[BushMasterBoy]

Could it be an Windows 10 update? I saw a complaint on the internet of problems after an update for some users. I hope this helps.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4532695/windows-10-update-kb4532695

[Bailey Guns]

When you describe it as the screen refreshing, is this what happens? You click a folder and the icons on the desktop disappear and then reappear like when you start up the pc. Is that what you see?

If so, explorer.exe is crashing for some reason.

Yeah...I click on a folder, screen goes black for just a fraction of a second, then the desktop reappears.

I'm connected. Tried a reset while connected to the internet. Same result. I get an error message that says there was a problem and no changes were made. I've tried the resolution thing. Didn't work. I've tried some of the other fixes recommended above and some others that came up during a search. It says it can't go back to the last time update point because it's been over 10 days. I'm pretty much out of ideas. I've tried pretty much everything you guys have suggested and then some.

It's weird because other than that it's working fine. No other symptoms or problems.

[CS1983]

Go into task manager ( ctrl alt del) and kill the explorer.exe; start that back up again and see if the problem continues. I’ve seen this before but it was a while ago and I cannot recall if additional steps were needed.

[Big E3]

I had something similar happen when my Windows 10 updated. I could not get any of my Word documents to open. It turns out a while back I had added a second monitor (my big screen TV in my office) for some work I was doing that I needed a lot of info up at one time. Long story short all my word docs were opening on the second monitor. And since the second monitor was also my TV, I needed to change the input on the TV to view any computer docs. Sure enough when I checked everything was on that screen. Just dragged it back and all is good.

[Gman]

I've also disabled 'Fast Startup' to avoid issues with things being hung-up and Fast Startup just keeps bringing me back to the same broken state. With an NVMe SSD, startup is really quick anyway.

How to disable Windows 10 fast startup (and why you'd want to) (https://www.windowscentral.com/how-disable-windows-10-fast-startup)

[FoxtArt]

Unplug your mouse. Press the window key + e on your keyboard. (window key is between control and alt). Alt tab until the cursor is on the folder pane, then use your arrow keys. Press enter. If that works, go buy a new mouse. Unlikely to be the the problem, but bizarre issues can be encountered with a bad mouse, even if you can click on some things - so it's another thing to rule out.

[Frac]

It?s not a mouse problem.

There are hundreds of fix lists out there if you search ?windows 10 explorer.exe crashing?.
Example: https://thegeekpage.com/windows-10-file-explorer-crashing-problem/

I would start with a system file check.
https://www.windowscentral.com/how-use-sfc-command-utility-fix-system-files-windows-10

If that doesn?t fix it, then you should check the error logs for messages pointing to the problem.


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[fright88]

Couple simple things you could try. Start up in safe mode then try launching problematic programs followed by a try in normal mode. Also could try running ccleaner to clean up the registry. Finally I'd try disabling all of your start up programs in the task manager under startup.

I know it's off topic but this reminds me of a time in school my friend and I went around to all of the classroom computers and took a screenshot of everyone's desktops then removed all of their shortcuts and set the screenshot as their backround. We got a good laugh for a while then told the instructor what we'd done and got extra credit. This was a computer troubleshooting class so this sort of behavior was encouraged.

[Gman]

Also could try running ccleaner to clean up the registry.
I wouldn't.

WINDOWS SECURITY
Is CCleaner Safe? Not Quite. And We Show You How to Replace It (https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/stop-using-ccleaner-windows/)

[fright88]

I wouldn't.

WINDOWS SECURITY
Is CCleaner Safe? Not Quite. And We Show You How to Replace It (https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/stop-using-ccleaner-windows/)

Hmm thanks for the heads up. A bit sad as I've been using it for years.

[Bailey Guns]

I've even tried to look at the logs in Event Viewer. When I click on it to view the log file it does the same refresh thing. I can't view any Windows explorer files.

I've tried dozens of "fixes"...none of them work.

I'm gonna bite the bullet and just do a fresh Windows install.

[Gman]

BG, who's the manufacturer of your PC and is it a desktop or laptop?

[Bailey Guns]

It's a Dell desktop.

[Bailey Guns]

This has really got me baffled. I've tried a disk reformat...didn't work. Ends with an error message that it can't access certain files due to a explorer.exe problem. I've tried booting from a recovery disk and that didn't work...same error message. I've never seen anything like this...not that I'm an expert or anything.

Only thing I can do basically is online stuff.

[Gman]

http://youtu.be/1f-86ViPGy4
FWIW

[Bailey Guns]

^^ Tried it just now. Didn't work.

[Circuits]

Might be time to burn it to the ground and start over. I hope you've got a backup for your actual files you care about and want to restore to the disk afterwards.

Make a Win10 install image to a USB stick, and also get or make a live-cd/dvd/usb of a linux system rescue image. Both are pretty easy to do online these days.

Boot into the linux system rescue image, open a terminal and completely erase everything on the primary hard disk with this command: (presuming your primary hard disk shows up as 'sda')


sudo dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sda

That will completely zero every single sector on the drive, and it will show up as uninitialized (factory new) when you boot into the windows install USB. Install windows, your system will eventually come back up and get its digital license either from the TPM in the system or off the Microsoft servers over the interwebs.

[BushMasterBoy]

Have you tried this?

https://www.dell.com/support/article/en-us/sln299044/how-to-download-and-use-the-dell-os-recovery-image-in-microsoft-windows?lang=en

[Bailey Guns]

I'll try the Dell support site first.

Well that's not gonna work because the computer won't recognize the USB flash drive that I want to download the recovery file to.

[Bailey Guns]

Problem solved. Finally.

I ordered a new computer.

I'll fiddle fart around with the old one after the new one arrives.

[Gman]

That's another way to do it. [Coffee]

Good luck with it.

[BushMasterBoy]

Thats what I did. Microsofty said no more support for Win 7. SSD and 32GB ram makes a superfast boot. I'm pleased.

[bradbn4]

sometimes you might need to use a recovery image to restore the bad acting drive.
Other times you have to re-install windows.
https://www.microsoft.com/en-ca/software-download/windows10

I have used that link to force a full update to a current version of Windows 10 from a failed update.