Fix: File Explorer is crashing on right click Windows 10 / 11

In case if File Explorer is freezing or crashing on your computer and you are wondering what to do, simply follow the fixes of this article and the problem will be solved in no time. But before moving on to the main solutions you should go for these workarounds first to try out some simpler solutions for your problem-

Initial Workarounds–

1. Restart your computer and check if it helps or not.

2. Check if you are using an administrative account on your computer, if not, then log in using an administrative account and then check if the problem continues to happen-

If any of these workarounds didn’t work out for you, go for these solutions-

Fix-1 Use SFC / SCANNOW command

1 – Search cmd in windows search box.

2 -Now, right click on the command prompt icon and click run as administrator

3 -Now, run the command given below

sfc /scannow

wait for sometime to let it get completed and fix system issues in your PC

Fix-2 Use ShellExView to detect the cause of the problem-

Shell extensions are mainly installed and managed by Windows itself. But, some third party applications also install their own shell extensions on your computer. File Explorer is prone to crash easily if there is a corrupted 3rd party shell extension in your system.

To disable all the third-party shell extensions follow these steps-

1. Download ShellExView on your computer. Extract the downloaded zip file in a location of your choice.

2. Go to the folder where you have extracted the zip file. Double click on “shexview.exe” .

Wait for a while as ShellExView will take a while to collect some information from your system.

3. In the ShellExView window, click on “Options” on the menu bar and then click on “Hide All Microsoft Extensions“.

You will be able to visualize only the 3rd party shell extensions in the window.

4. Click on Type to sort by type of items.

5. Now, just right click and disable all context menu items with pink background.

Reboot your computer. After rebooting, your issue with File Explorer should be solved.

*NOTE:-

If you don’t want to disable all the third-party shell extensions in your File Explorer, follow these steps to find out the problematic shell extension.

1. Disable the first shell extension in the list.

2. Check if the File Explorer window is crashing or not.

Repeat these two steps until the File Explorer stops crashing. After disabling a particular extension, File Explorer will stop crashing. This extension (in general, the application) is the root cause of the error.

You have to simply uninstall that particular application from your computer.

Follow these steps to uninstall the program from your computer-

1. Press Windows key+R to launch Run. Now, type “appwiz.cpl” and hit Enter. Programs and Features window will be opened.

2. In Programs and Features window, in the list applications and packages, scroll down to find the application on your computer.

3. Simply double click on the application which you want to uninstall from your computer.

After uninstalling the program/ application, don’t forget to reboot your computer.

After rebooting your computer, check if File Explorer is still freezing or not.

Fix-3 Restart File Explorer process on your computer-

Restarting the File Explorer process on your computer may solve the problem on your computer.

1. Press Ctrl+Shift+Enter together. This will launch the Task Manager on your computer.

2. In the Task Manager window, scroll down and find the “File Explorer” process on your computer.

3. Now, right-click on it and then click on “Restart” to restart the process on your computer.

After restarting File Explorer, wait for a while and then check if File Explorer is working or not.

Sambit Koley

Sambit is a Mechanical Engineer By qualification who loves to write about Windows 10 and solutions to weirdest possible problems.