For the past hour I’ve been trying to figure out why Windows Explorer was caught in a loop of crashing, checking for a solution and then restarting, only to crash again and continue the loop. The first step to get Vista (SP1) usable again was to hit CTRL+ALT+DEL and open up the Task Manager and end the explorer process. This stops the crash and restarts the loop. And if it tries to tell you that access is denied when you are attempting to end the process, try again and if that doesn’t work close out the Task Manager and then open it back up. This happened to me a couple of times, but a closing and re-opening the Task Manager allowed me to end the explorer process.
Step #1: Think of Possible Culprits
Now that you’ve got the crash-restart loop stopped, stop and have a good think about what might be giving you hassle. For me it was a video file on my desktop called, believe it or not, video.mpg. It was a file I had converted via media-convert.com and was in the process of downloading from the same site when the explorer crash-loop started. After some reading around, I figured it was most likely this file as that was the last action I did before the crash started. This may be the cause of your consternation, too, but if not, unfortunately, there is a long list of reported culprits that throw Vista into the same fit. A search and a little bit of reading will most likely help you to narrow down your problem file or installed program. Also, as part of this initial step go ahead and allow a spyware scanner to run in the background. You never know.
My Culprit
Offending file: a video file I attempted to convert through media-convert.com. The problem is almost certainly with Vista and not with this or any other site (excluding of course any malware or virus that may have been installed).
Restore is a Last Resort
Don’t go straight to flat-out restoring your computer. Attempt everything in your power to find out the exact problem and fix it. Most likely someone has had the same problem before and there’s a simple fix. You just need to be patient and find it out.
Step #2: Create a New Administrator Account (Optional)
You may not need this step. Try step three first and if that doesn’t work come back here to step two.
If all you’ve currently got open is the Windows Task Manager and this blog post, you’ll need to get to the Control Panel. In the Task Manager click File and then New Task (Run…). Type “C:\Program Files” (without the quotes of course) in the Create New Task dialogue box. Hit OK. Up should pop a window, so make your way to the Add or Remove User Accounts page in Control Panel in order to add a new Administrator Account. CTRL+ALT+DEL will bring you back to the crazy in-between worlds Vista screen where you can Log Off and change users. Switch over to the new administrator account. Like a cool breeze washing over you, you should again feel the sweet repose of a prelapsarian Vista world, a world without crashing explorer processes. If your file was on the desktop as was mine, things quickly get sticky because any click leading you towards the desktop of the first user who suffers the crash will result in an invading crash breaking through to your newly created administrator account. Don’t worry though. You can sort it out.
Step #3: Delete the Folder Containing the Bad File
Logged in with the new administrator account I browsed to and deleted the desktop folder and its contents which belonged to my first user who was suffering the crash loop. I’m not quite sure if it’s necessary to be logged in with a separate account to delete the offending folder or not as far as avoiding the crash loop goes; but this is how I did it (see Step #2). I deleted the desktop folder, re-created it, logged off and back on again to the first account and now the first account seems to be working normally. I had to delete the entire folder because the crash loop would show up regardless of the user even if I tried to browse the desktop folder and most definitely if I tried to select the bad file to delete it (whether with right- or left-click). Deleting the whole folder with the bad file seemed the only option left. You could of course restore from the recycle bin the not-bad files, so don’t worry about losing stuff. You can get it back.
You can now go back and delete the second administrator account, if you created one.
My Hope
I was immensely frustated by this explorer crash loop and know that if you’re reading this, you are most likely greatly frustrated as well. Hang in there. The solution may be just as simple as mine: deleting a bad file. Leave a comment here if this fix worked for you. I’d love to here if writing this has helped anyone.
Well just read this a bit too late. But I also solved this loop.
I also tried to convert an .avi into an mpeg video, and this is where the crashing explorer loop started. Even if I restarted my PC ( running Vista ) this explorer crashing loop started over again. I couldnt access my c drive or anything, all I could do was open the task manager or watch my desktop screen.
Also in save mode I got this explorer crashing thing. Whenever I restarted my PC I got the error diagnostic message , sayin that there is a problem with “mpegsplitter”.
By googling I found out that this mpegsplitter thing could also be related to the k-lite video codec pack, which I had installed.
Well since I couldnt acces Mycomputer, c drive etc I was lucky enough that I had ccleaner installed, which is also accessible by right clicking onto the bin folder on the desktop.
Well once I uninstalled k-lite video codec this explorer crashing loop stopped.
Very frustrating thing
Just had this happen to me on my Vista laptop. Happened at least twice in the past and I had to reformat. Never have found out anything concrete, but it is always when I download videos, usually .flv format, to the desktop. I did read somewhere that simply downloading to a folder and not the DT solves the problem.
Anyhow this time it just stopped on its own while I was researching and came across this. I tried to close explorer in task manger a few times but it never let me.
it just stopped on its own…
Thank You so much. After fiddling around for 3hrs, I found this solution and it worked perfectly. For me, it was also a video that I downloaded that caused the problem.
Thanks drew. You saved my ass. Laters
Ugh. I hate VISTA. Okay, I haven’t tried either step 2 or 3, because one of the ‘offending’ folders is the C: root directory. I promise I have a legit copy of Vista, but I can’t find the original disk… I do have the original in French, but I don’t think that’s going to cut it.
Any other suggestions please???????????????????????????? I’ve had this problem forever, almost since I bought the Toshiba Laptop. This has got to be a Windows problem, no? I’ve scoured the internet for solutions, but this site seems to have the most recent activity on it, and I was hoping someone would say ‘OH, Microsoft has finally solved the problem!”
I know you’ve been just as frustrated, because it’s the most ridiculous problem EVER, so I would appreciate any suggestions.
Thanks,
Julie
Forget to say, I’m proficient in DOS, and looking at the C: root directory, there are no video files at all in the root directory, just config.sys, autoexec.bat, and ssinst.log, and other sub-directories… I can go into the subdirectories, and windows explorer doesn’t crash, but I can’t see my root directory, or another directory on an external hard drive (which happens to be a video directory).
I have loaded a JVC Everio program that manages video, *.MTS files, but I KNOW I had the problem before that. Ugh. So frustrated I feel like reformatting with another OS… help!
You are my hero!
I had a similar problem. I opened the command prompt and deleted a number of jpegs on the desktop that had been put there recently, and bingo!
That MS hasn’t patched some an obvious bug is scnadalous.
Thanks again
Simon
I have this exact same problem. It started today right after I got my computer back from being fixed for 2 weeks (the hard drive crashed). I was on Youtube watching a video when I got a blue screen. I start up the computer to see this problem (which was happening a few days before my hard drive crashed too). All I did so far was install Steam and go to Youtube. I have no idea what the problem is. I can’t access Task Manager for some reason, and every time Windows Explorer closes, it takes the control panel with it. Any idea what the problem is?
I never received the ominous blue screen, but did delete some video files in the folder, and it stopped crashing… I had also copied a file onto the desktop which made viewing the desktop crash too, and after seeing other’s posts, I took that off the desktop too, and problem stopped…
Yes, I can’t believe that MS has nothing on their website about this, because it is a VERY VERY frustrating problem.
Still having this issue… I’m not entirely computer savvy so some of these options seem a little bit foreign to me. I’m assuming that a video file is the culprit, but I’m under the impression that I’ve recently gotten rid of any videos I have… Not just recent videos downloaded… Everything! What the heck is going on?
It’s still looping, it even loops in safe mode. Warrenty is about 10 days overdue to be able to bring back to the store… Should have bought that 1 year in store policy!
hi,
just spent 6 hours with the ‘loop’ of ‘evil’! system restore didnt work,coulnt find a good fix online, thought this might help someone in the same possition. you need to open any file/desktop folder, go to ORGANISE, FOLDER AND SEARCH OPTIONS on the dropdown, on the VIEW tab, make sure the ALWAYS SHOW ICONS NEVER THUMBNAILS box is ticked, it should all stop. then go and system restore again and it should be back to normal.
…….im off for a sleep now
vegadave
Hi,
I have the same problem with my control panel crashing windows explorer every time I open it. I wasn’t able to finda solution on the forums, but I tried something that worked:
Right click the taskbar, go to Properties, Start Menu tab, and click Customize.
Select Control Panel: DISPLAY AS A MENU.
Now, try to restart. You can access the components of the control panel on the start menu. You can then open any of them without opening the control panel. And after you open one of them, you can access the whole control panel without crashing (right click the control panel from start menu and click OPEN).
This really fixed my problem, I hope it fixes yours.
Pls. spread the word if you find this effective as I cannot post to some of the forums.
Hi,
I had the same problem with Windows Explorer on a HP Vista Home Edition 64 bit computer, it would keep restarting in a loop and also shuts down all the programs in the taskbar.
I searched various forums and tried different options but nothing worked until someone said it might be a virus. I have Norton but it did not detect anything, then I tried Window’s Defender (which I had disabled because I had Norton) Window’s Defender found this startup program called mwau.exe resting under C:\recycler\(random numbers…) but when I opened C: drive I could not find anything manually, and there was no option to remove or disable it through Windows Defender.
Then I googled this name (mwau.exe) and found a Free Antivirus software called ‘Malwarebytes Antimalware 1.41′ recommended by CNETdownload.com it’s a small program but I downloaded it and ran it, it found and deleted this mwau.exe, I haven’t had any problems with Windows Explorer after that, apparently mwau.exe stands for (I think) Microsoft Windows Automatic Update. But after removing it I don’t have anymore problems with Windows Explorer. My Windows updates runs as usual and I get new updates as usual, but this muau.exe was probably the mischief making virus.
I’m not a geek but my suggestion is to first try this before trying to uninstall some program you think may be causing the problem, apparently people running even XP and Windows7 have a similar problam and different options are working for different people, I’m just glad mine worked, its been 5 days now and no problems with Windows Explorer ever since.
Here’s the free download link http://www.malwarebytes.org/mbam.php
also, when you click on download the name of the exe file is ‘mbam-setup.exe’
Hey there, I want to thank you for putting this out there, I started having this issue last night, I knew it was related to 3 movie files that I had downloaded to the desktop, and yeah, right there is why I’m still having a problem. It was related to 3 different files, so I went over to another user like you said, and I copied the files from the desktop to a desktop – copy under users, my reason why is because I keep a lot of stuff on my desktop, and it’s over 5gb in size. I then deleted the original desktop, it was a perm delete. Now during the initial panic I had over explorer crashing, I managed to put two of the files into another folder on the desktop, however I put it into a folder that was still 4.75gb large, so it’s still the large majority of my information on the desktop. Either way, back on my usual user account now, and I’m not crash looping explorer, but when I go to the copy of the desktop folder to try and delete the video files, it still does an explorer crash. I managed to delete one of the files, it was small enough to make it through that window of time before explorer crashes, but the last file is still there. Any help on how I can save nearly 5gb of data?
Actually, on a hunch, I went to start menu, typed in the name of the video file into the search, I was able to delete the file from the search results, which resulted in deleting it from the original folder, and freeing me of this terrible issue. I thought I’d post it here just in case someone in the future has a similar issue. Search for it using start menu, and delete from there, it works amazingly well.