Windows Explorer has stopped working going in a loop :(

Draeger

Draeger

Draeger

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Got a friends laptop here ( eMachines D620 ) running Vista Home Basic x86 which boots up fine but when you get to the desktop a "Windows Explorer has stopped working" message pops up, then it tries to restart Explorer and the same message repeats itself in a constant loop. Nothing on the desktop will open and neither will the Control Panel.

I have ran a scan with Spybot S&D via a BartPE disc and it found a couple of minor nasties and got rid of them. I have also attempted a System Restore which although it worked and restored the thing, didn't fix this error.

Googling it there doesn't appear to be a lot of definitive solutions out there although from what I understand it looks like its Registry related.

I'm not sure what to do now, short of a backup of data and a reformat/reinstall. Is it possible to somehow transfer a working copy of the Registry from the Vista disc to the affected laptop?. Would that even be of any use, bearing in mind that it would be a "bare" and untouched Registry that was being dropped in no doubt missing entries from various other progs that have been installed?.

Any help appreciated, otherwise reformat here I come. :(
 
Try using ShellExView to disable any shell extensions installed by third-parties. Shell extensions are things which appear when you right click on a file, i.e. to choose to use 7-zip to zip it up.

Is there any music or videos on the desktop? If so try removing all codec packs.
 
Have look through this and remove anything that is installed into the Shell right-click, more often than not it is one of these causing it.

http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/shexview.html

Also, have you tried the problems and reports thing in control panel? Click check for updates, more often that not it will get it.

I know there was an Issue with Nero 7/8 that caused the COM surrogate to stop working, might be worth checking that.
 
ive had this before, usually when there has been something like a corrupt rar file or image on my desktop, my guess would be windows tries to helpfully read somekind of data from these files and gets stuck.

You could try and move the my documents+desktop files to a temp folder elsewhere under safe mode and see if it makes any difference.
 
Appreciate the replies. The problem is though folks is I can't double click anything to run or open. When I do so an error message "Class not registered" appears and also, the constant pop up of the error loop message has Explorer stopping and restarting at approx 5 second intervals. Can that Shellexview be used in a "bootable" way from a CD or USB drive?. At the moment the only way I can have a dig around the laptop hard drive is using a BartPE disc.
 
Try using the run dialog to open it. Either press the Windows Key + R or if that fails open the task manager; press CTRL+SHIFT+ESC, click 'Applications' at the top then 'New Task'.

Or just reboot in safe mode and see if that works.
 
Tried Safe Mode - No joy, does the same.

Can't even use the run box to enter commands because everytime Windows Explorer stops and restarts itself, it prevents me from doing anything at all. Even if I do manage to click on something inbetween Explorer restarting or running it from the Task Manager, everything just results in an error message "Class not registered".

I think I'm looking at a reformat. :(
 
I came across this which suggests trying this patch from Microsoft.

also try:
Start > Run > regsvr32 ExplorerFrame.dll


Try restarting into 'safe mode with command prompt' to do it.
 
Just tried that regsvr in the Run box and an error popped up which says "Entry Point Not Found - The procedure entry point CoInternetSetFeatureEnabled could not be located in the dynamic link library urlmon.dll".
 
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