{"id":400,"date":"2014-07-08T11:57:10","date_gmt":"2014-07-08T11:57:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.hovatek.com\/?p=400"},"modified":"2022-08-15T22:19:24","modified_gmt":"2022-08-15T22:19:24","slug":"how-to-fix-the-windows-explorer-has-stopped-working-error","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hovatek.com\/blog\/how-to-fix-the-windows-explorer-has-stopped-working-error\/","title":{"rendered":"How to fix the &#8220;Windows Explorer has stopped working&#8221; error"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone  wp-image-406\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hovatek.com\/blog\/bpyeki\/uploads\/2014\/07\/4759-1844-Windows-Explorer-Has-Stopped-Working.jpg\" alt=\"How to fix Windows explorere has stopped working\" \/><\/p>\n<p>If you think you&#8217;ve come across annoying PC errors, then wait till you encounter the Windows Explorer has stopped working error. You really don&#8217;t want this issue when you&#8217;re working on an important project. This error doesn&#8217;t just pop up one day to start frustrating you, its usually an accumulation of past signals (you&#8217;ve either not being observing\u00a0or have been ignoring) come to punish you. In rare cases, its just one rogue element.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"important\"> What is Windows Explorer and what does it do?<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Its important you don&#8217;t mistake Internet\u00a0Explorer for Windows Explorer. Internet\u00a0Explorer is a browser (like Chrome, Firefox etc) whereas, Windows Explorer is your Windows Operating System&#8217;s inbuilt file \/ folder manager. \u00a0Windows Explorer&#8217;s fundamental purpose is to let you view, open, copy, move, and otherwise manage your files and folders.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"important\"> Where is Windows Explorer and how do I locate it?<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Locating Windows Explorer is quite easy. Some techniques are:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Press Windows key + E<\/li>\n<li>Right-Click on My Computer and click on Explore<\/li>\n<li>Press the Windows button \/ Start menu and search for Explorer<\/li>\n<li>Click the folder icon on the task bar<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span class=\"important\"> What could cause the Windows Explorer has stopped working error?<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Common causes of this error are:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Incompatible or corrupted driver(s): An outdated, corrupted or incompatible driver could be the problem.<\/li>\n<li>Missing or corrupted Operating System files: Some OS file(s) might be missing or have been corrupted<\/li>\n<li>Virus \/ Malware: The PC might be Virus or Malware Infected<\/li>\n<li>Corrupted \/ rogue program: A recently installed program might be causing trouble.<\/li>\n<li>RAM issues: The PC might be running out of RAM or experiencing other RAM related issues.<\/li>\n<li>Corrupted media \/ document files: Some files on the PC might be corrupted.<\/li>\n<li>Hard Disk error: The Hard Disk might contain some errors.<\/li>\n<li>Too many Auto-start items: Auto-start items could be consuming system resources.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span class=\"important\"> How do I fix the Windows Explorer stopped working error?<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Some techniques you should consider applying when faced with this issue include:<\/p>\n<p>1. System restore: Try restoring the PC to a time before this issue began (See <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hovatek.com\/blog\/how-to-do-a-system-restore-on-a-pc\/\">https:\/\/www.hovatek.com\/blog\/how-to-do-a-system-restore-on-a-pc\/<\/a>\u00a0).<\/p>\n<p>2. Disable unneeded auto-start items: Keep auto-start items at the barest minimum (See <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hovatek.com\/blog\/how-to-fix-a-slow-hanging-or-crashing-pc\/\">https:\/\/www.hovatek.com\/blog\/how-to-fix-a-slow-hanging-or-crashing-pc\/<\/a>\u00a0)<\/p>\n<p>3. Disable services: This technique might be considered tedious but is very effective in isolating rogue processes. To do this:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Press the Windows \/ start button<\/li>\n<li>Search for msconfig<\/li>\n<li>Launch it<\/li>\n<li>Go to the services tab<\/li>\n<li>Untick any service you wish to disable<\/li>\n<li>Click &#8220;Apply&#8221; then &#8220;OK&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>If prompted to restart, go ahead and restart the PC<\/li>\n<li>Repeat this procedure in batches of 5 till you isolate the faulty service(s)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>4. \u00a0Re-install Windows: In extreme cases, a Windows re-installation might be the fastest and most convenient fix (See <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hovatek.com\/blog\/how-to-install-windows-8-with-and-without-the-operating-system-cd-dvd\/\">https:\/\/www.hovatek.com\/blog\/how-to-install-windows-8-with-and-without-the-operating-system-cd-dvd\/<\/a>\u00a0or\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.hovatek.com\/blog\/how-to-install-windows-7-with-and-without-the-operating-system-cd-dvd\/\">https:\/\/www.hovatek.com\/blog\/how-to-install-windows-7-with-and-without-the-operating-system-cd-dvd\/<\/a>\u00a0)<\/p>\n<p>5. Create a new user account: The current user account might contain deeply rooted errors. In such cases, porting to a new user account could save you lots of headaches. To do this:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Press the Windows button<\/li>\n<li>Search for Control panel and launch it<\/li>\n<li>Click on User Accounts and Family Safety<\/li>\n<li>Click User Accounts<\/li>\n<li>Click Manage another account<\/li>\n<li>Click Add a user account<\/li>\n<li>Fill in the details then click Create<\/li>\n<li>Logoff the current account and login to the newly created user account<\/li>\n<li>Move your files to the new account if its stable.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>6. Windows \/ Driver update: Consider doing a Windows \/ driver update to resolve incompatibility issues. If this issue began shortly after installing a driver then uninstall the driver.<\/p>\n<p>7. RAM Check: The PC might be running low on RAM or experiencing RAM issues. To run a RAM check:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\u00a0Press the Windows button \/ Start menu<\/li>\n<li>Search for\u00a0Memory Diagnostics\u00a0and launch it<\/li>\n<li>\u00a0Click Restart now and check for problems (recommended).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>8. Check for corrupted document \/ media files: \u00a0The problem might be corrupted non-OS files. To check for errors:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Click on\u00a0My Computer<\/li>\n<li>Click\u00a0Organize\u00a0and select\u00a0Folder and search options\u00a0from the dropdown<\/li>\n<li>On the\u00a0Folder Options\u00a0window, click the\u00a0View\u00a0tab<\/li>\n<li>Place a check in the option to\u00a0Always show Icons, never thumbnail<\/li>\n<li>Remove the check for the option to\u00a0Display file icon on thumbnails<\/li>\n<li>Click\u00a0OK\u00a0to close the\u00a0Folder Options\u00a0window<\/li>\n<li>All files should now have the icons of the default programs that read them.<\/li>\n<li>If the Windows Explorer error occurs on opening a folder then that folder likely contains corrupted files.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>9. Hard disk check: The Hard Disk might contain errors and should be checked. To do this:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\u00a0Open the Start Menu and click on the computer link<\/li>\n<li>\u00a0Right-click the hard drive that Windows is installed on (usually C:)<\/li>\n<li>Select Properties from the context menu<\/li>\n<li>Switch to the Tools tab<\/li>\n<li>Select the Check Now button under Error-checking<\/li>\n<li>Make sure that both options are selected before you press the Start button<\/li>\n<li>The Disk check needs to be scheduled as the disk is in use when the operating system is running<\/li>\n<li>It will start the scan automatically on the next startup<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>10. Install a good Antivirus: Download Norton Internet Security or Avast Internet Security\u00a0, update then\u00a0run a full system scan.<\/p>\n<p>11. Run an OS file integrity check: Running this check helps fish out and fix corrupted or missing OS files. To do this:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Press the Windows button \/ Start menu<\/li>\n<li>Search for cmd<\/li>\n<li>Right-click and run as Administrator<\/li>\n<li>Type cd\\ then press enter<\/li>\n<li>Type sfc \/SCANNOW then press enter<\/li>\n<li>Wait for the process to complete<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span class=\"important\"> How do I restart Windows Explorer after it crashes?<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Press ctrl+shift+esc<\/li>\n<li>Click Yes if prompted<\/li>\n<li>Task Manager will open<\/li>\n<li>Click File<\/li>\n<li>Click Run new task<\/li>\n<li>Type explorer.exe then Enter<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Hovatek&#8230;.just a button away!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>If you think you&#8217;ve come across annoying PC errors, then wait till you encounter the Windows Explorer has stopped working error. You really don&#8217;t want this issue when you&#8217;re working on an important project. This error doesn&#8217;t just pop up one day to start frustrating you, its usually an accumulation of past signals (you&#8217;ve either [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":406,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[818],"tags":[80,126],"class_list":["post-400","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tutorials","tag-laptop-desktop","tag-tutorials"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hovatek.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/400","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hovatek.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hovatek.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hovatek.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hovatek.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=400"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.hovatek.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/400\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hovatek.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=400"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hovatek.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=400"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hovatek.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=400"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}