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.
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.
