Every time I use Windows Explorer, after a very short time I get an error message-"Windows Explorer has encountered a problem and needs to close".
If I click OK or the red X, it kills Explorer. If I do nothing and drag the error box to the bottom of the screen, I can still use Explorer. I've run my anti-virus and spyware programs but nothing shows up. Has anyone else encountered this problem?

Uninstall explorer. Defrag. Scan. Download and install Internet Explorer 7.0
For some reason, we have much better luck with the reinstall.
Then run all your Microsoft Update scans and update absolutely everything. Then reboot, and run the updates again... until it finds no more updates.

It could be the old thumbnail preview problem.

Go to Start/Run/and paste in - regsvr32 /u shmedia.dll then click OK.

That turns off thumbnail previews for videos.Always crashes Explorer.

I'm having problems with Windows Explorer, not Internet Explorer. are they connected?

Interesting.. as soon as I did what you suggested, I got the same error message!

No,that`s boring,not interesting.

Is it a totally random problem or when your opening/closing a folder or right clicking ?

Microsoft has an answer for the closing a folder error HERE

A lot more errors HERE

General solutions : System restore,System file checker (sfc scannow),try Safe mode.

It happens when I either open a folder or right click. Don't know about closing a folder, it usually happens as soon as I do anything.

Normally when Explorer crashes it`s for one of these four reasons -


1.Windows tries to create thumbnail previews,whenever a folder containing

.Avi or.mov or .mpg files. is accessed.More solutions HERE


2.Some program puts an entry in the right click menu that causes freeze when you right click.

ATI Catalyst and other video driver programs are well known for this.

The solution for that is to uninstall the program you last installed,or disable the

"Shell extension" in the registry.


3.Old Networked drive/folder entries in Network places.Windows keeps tring to find a Network drive that doesn`t exist.


4.Spyware.Go HERE and post the three logs it asks for, in the Security forum.



Did you install anything recently ? Do you have video files anywhere ? Networked drives ?

Did you try System Restore or Safe mode ?

I recently uninstalled Sonic and installed Nero because my DVD/CD-ROM drives wouldn't recognize blank CD disks. I do have .avi .mpg .mov and .bin files that I've downloaded, but the error message pops up even if I browse files that are text only. I have Windows Media player, VLC player, AVS video suite, and DVD Cloner, but none of these caused problems prior to my trying to fix the blank CD problem. The blank disk problem persists, by the way.
I didn't want to try system restore, because that takes you back to square one, and you have to reinstall all the programs you've added since, don't you?

You can always undo the restore if it doesn`t improve anything.

If it does stop the crashes,reinstalling 3-4 programs won`t take 10 mins

A shot to nothing,as they say.

You have install something has crashing Windows Explorer, it has happen to me. There is a few things you can do, but the best way to fix this problem is to remove the software you had install that cause this problem.

http://www.helpwithwindows.com/techf...r-crashes.html