Windows 7 explorer crashes, everytime I access a particular folder

Situation - So you have a folder, that seems buggy or perhaps the files inside it have gone corrupt because explorer.exe crashes everytime you access that folder. Maybe, the address bar on top is loading and then suddenly crashes the explorer. Perhaps, in the downloads folder.

Jump to tl;dr for possible solution.

What I thought it could be -
- corrupt file/incompletely copied corrupt file causing the explorer to crash
- some connection between a downloaded file and uTorrent (because all this was happening at the place where I threw my downloads)
- one of my regedit tweaks messing around.
- malware?!? OH SHEEEEEET x_x
- approaching hard disk failure *mini heart attack*

What I did - (most of this is outta paranoia; so don't judge me lol)

- Went into the filesystem with my handy Cygwin terminal and got rid of the incompletely copied files (coz the first time this crash occurred, I was copying a huge file)
*didn't help*

- Installed Windows updates (hoping this was a common issue and they might've addressed it in an update or something)
*didn't help*

- Virus scanned the folder... Virus scanned the entire computer... (took me quite a while)
*nothing*

- Ran CCleaner and cleaned out the registry.
*didn't help*

- Unmounted the drive and ran the error checker. Took me a long time to do that but...
*nothing*

- Went ahead and defragged the harddisk with Smart Defrag. Took me an even longer time but...
*didn't help*

 -mini panic attack-

The white flags were raised and I decided to consult the almighty and all-knowing oracle; Google. With that came the realization, I wasn't the only one. So after scouring around on forums, I figured the reason why the address bar loaded to a certain degree and then the explorer crashed. THUMBNAILS.

Apparently, when you access a folder, the files in it try to give you a sneak peek or what's inside with the thumbnails. Now this part takes a particularly bigger toll on the ram and cpu because of which, explorer.exe says, "nah bro, this too heavy to lift" and throws it down.
 
So I disabled the thumbnails and what do you know... problem solved.
Hah. Just like that... and here I was worried it might be something serious.

tl;dr - Disable file thumbnails.

[if you don't see the menubar or tools; Organize > Layout > Menu bar]
then, Tools > Folder Options > View > Always show icons, never thumbnails (have this checked)


ps - Now, in case, this doesn't solve your problem, it might really be something serious. Try the steps from the What I did section as that solves most hard disk issues.

How to open a .sfw file without installing new software

So you are stuck with a .swf file and wanna open it. One of the first things that come to mind is to look for some 'lite' software that don't have to allow editing but should allow you the see the file, at the very least. Sounds silly? I guess, I am because that's what I did.

What I came across was a Standalone Flash Player, the SWF Opener and lots of other stuff. Most of it from 2009 or so. No doubt, SWF opener would be a great alternative but for the love of everything holy, I just wanted to watch this viral video, that I had saved locally, which was apparently in a swf format.

To show it to my friends on the phone, I thought of converting it to mp4 (since that's one of the formats my phone supports)! That's when I started to think for real. The browser. The almighty browser!

tl;dr - Open the swf file in a browser (Chrome, Firefox, Opera or any other); be sure to have the Adobe Flash Plugin installed (the same thing we use to watch youtube videos).

This place

Chances are high that this might never really be read by humans but I hope this blog turns out to be helpful for someone who might face the same issues as me (of if I end up suffering from major amnesia in the future).

So once again, this is a tech blog. So all my technical difficulties (and the solutions I came up with) go here. Some post would be long and detailed, some would be short and concise. Feel free to drop me a message in case you don't get any parts. Constructive criticism would be GREATLY appreciated. Maybe even better ways of doing the same things. Anything that gets the job done (better).

As of now, I'm no tech guru but I have my small moments of victory that I would love to share with you. Help a few souls in their endeavors, if possible. I've been helped a lot on the open internet and I think, at some point of time, it's time to give back.

What might be trivial for someone might be groundbreaking for someone else.

So cheers. Long live open source and the open internet!