Windows Explorer or File Explorer is the key feature of Windows that millions of users use to access their various storage devices. What will happen if you can’t access your File Explorer and instead an error message shows up with this error message “Windows Explorer has stopped working“? If you are facing this issue and cannot use File Explorer, don’t worry. You can solve this issue simply by enacting these easy fixes on your system.
Workarounds –
1. Detach all the external USB devices, external drives from your system. Then, open File Explorer and test.
2. Just restart Windows once. Test whether this simple workaround helps.
Fix 1 – Tweak the registry
Corrupted DaemoShellExtImage, WinRAR, WinRAR32, and 7-zip shell extensions can crash the File Explorer.
1. Press the Windows key+S keys together and type “regedit“.
2. Then, tap on the “Registry Editor” to access it.
Registry Editor will open up.
Warning – Sometimes, these registry edits can brick your entire system. In that case, a simple registry backup can save your system. So, follow this simple step to create a registry backup before you perform any registry changes.
When the Registry Editor opens up, tap on “File“. Then tap on “Export” to create a new registry backup on your system.
This backup will help you return back to the previous state.
3. Once Registry Editor appears on the screen, expand the left-hand pane this way –
Computer\HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\*\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers
4. Now, you will notice several context menu handlers (like the items that appear in the right-click menu).
5. Just, right-click on any of these items you can find and tap on “Delete.
WinRAR WinRAR32 DaemonShellExt 7-zip
6. Finally, to confirm it, tap on “Yes“.
Close the Registry Editor screen. After that, restart the system at once.
Fix 2 – Clear Windows Error logs
Clearing the application error logs has solved the issue for many users.
1. Right-click on the Windows icon and tap on “Run“.
2. When the Run terminal opens up, type “eventvwr.msc” and click on “OK“.
3. When you see the Error Viewer screen, expand the left-hand side this way –
Windows Logs > Application
4. Now, on the right pane, tap on “Clear Log…” to empty all the log files.
5. Finally, tap on “Clear” to clear the log files.
After you have done that, close the window.
Later, try to open the File Explorer and check if the issue persists.
Fix 3 – Copy Explorer.exe to another location
This solution has worked out for many users and should solve the issue quickly.
1. Open File Explorer.
2. Then, navigate to this folder –
C:\Windows
3. Here you will find several files and folders.
4. Look for the “explorer” application.
5. Next, select “explorer” and tap on the copy icon on the menu bar to copy it.
6. After that, go to this location in File Explorer –
C:\Windows\System32
7. In this System32 folder, paste the copied “explorer” app.
Close the File Explorer and test again.
Alternative steps –
You can’t perform the above-mentioned steps if File Explorer crashes continuously. So, you can use the Command Prompt to copy the file along the same path.
1. Just press the Windows key once and then start to type “command“.
2. When you see “Command Prompt” has appeared on the search results, right-click it and tap “Run as administrator“.
3. Now, write this line to navigate to the Windows directory.
cd C:\Windows
4. In the CMD terminal, paste this following line and press the Enter key to copy the explorer.exe file to the “C:\Windows\System32” directory.
copy explorer.exe C:\Windows\System32
Once you see the “1 file (s) copied” message has appeared, close the Command Prompt.
Launch File Explorer and test whether it is crashing.
Fix 4 – Alter the Files and Folders settings
The icon view option in File Explorer can solve this issue.
1. Press the Windows key along with the R keys together.
2. Then, type this code and hit Enter.
control folders
3. Now, in the Folder Options window, go to the “View” tab.
4. Make sure to check the “Always show icons, never thumbnails” option.
5. Finally, tap on “Apply” and “OK” to save the changes.
After this, open File Explorer and test if it is working properly or not. If that is not the case, follow the next fix.
Fix 5 – Run a system-wide scan
Sometimes, viruses or malware can be the root cause of the issue.
1. First of all click on the 🔍 icon and type “security“.
2. Then, tap on “Windows Security” to open Windows Security.
3. On the left-hand pane, tap on “⌂“.
4. After that, click on the “Virus & threat protection” to open it.
5. Just tap on “Scan options” to view the list of various scan options.
6. Here, choose the “Full Scan“.
7. Then, click on “Scan now” to run the full scan.
Let Windows Security run a system-wide scan to identify and fix the problem.
Fix 6 – Run SFC scan
SFC scan is meant to fix system files errors. So, running this scan should fix the issue.
1. Tap on the 🔍 sign on your taskbar and write “cmd“.
2. Later, right-click on the “Command Prompt” and tap on “Run as administrator“.
3. When the Command Prompt opens up, type this code and hit the Enter key to run the SFC scan.
sfc /scannow
Let this process reach 100%.
4. Once the SFC scan is completed, copy-paste this DISM command and hit Enter to start the DISM scan.
DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth
After running the DISM command, close the Command Prompt.
Fix 7 – Uninstall the MyWinlocker
Some users have reported that recently installed applications (like – MyWinlocker), uninstalling it should fix the crash issue.
1. First of all, right-click on the Windows icon and tap on “Apps and Features“.
2. Now, scroll down and look for “MyWinlocker“.
3. Then, tap on three vertical dots (⋮) and click on “Uninstall” to uninstall the app.
4. Then, tap on “Yes” to confirm the process.
After that, close Settings.
Reboot the system after that and check whether File Explorer is crashing or not.