Explorer.exe Constantly crashes

[LUTZIFER]

Well if your install of Windows 7 worked at first, then obviously you did something wrong and now Win 7 is working crappy.

So many people blame an OS or Microsoft for that matter on how their OS performs when 99% of the problems are something the user caused.

If everyone experiences the same problem or problems, then that's a bug, but if something is working for everyone else but you... well that's a no brainer.

Vista barely worked for probably like 99% of it's users, and everyone knows Vista was poorly written, and riddled with bugs, but Windows 7 is damn near perfect... for the majority of it's users.

[Anonymous_101]

It seems to not be crashing anymore. But I dont know for how long. Thanks for the help though you guys I really appreciate it.

[hairbawl87]

It seems to not be crashing anymore. But I dont know for how long. Thanks for the help though you guys I really appreciate it.

Yes, I have the same problem and currently my explorer.exe is not crashing. This issue has a very long history that spans from XP to 7 - just google explorer.exe frequently crashes, etc. Blame has been tossed around so many times...well, no one really knows for sure including me.

In my experiences I'll right-click something and the explorer will crash then restart and then the same thing will occur about 5-6 times until it decides to stop and it'll work great for a few days until it decides to start it up again. Completely bizarre.

I choose to believe that it's Securom DRM from games because back on XP there was a C&C (Kane's Wrath?) issue where explorer.exe will crash while right-clicking and they eventually put out a hotfix for securom to fix it. I think--and I know there are those who've supposedly done fresh installs and still report the issue--that this has somehow crossed over since the issue is the same. The eventlogs always point to ntdll.dll or msrvsomething something so they're not that much help.

[Anonymous_101]

Any luck? I'll keep looking if you're still having trouble. (You may have to reboot after uninstalling.)

sullysnet: If your issue includes NTDLL.dll instead of msvcrt.dll it may be a different issue. If you like I'll try to help you troubleshoot as well. First would be HijackThis to make sure there's nothing naughty installed. Also, please post your hardware configuration.

once again, I wish when you hit the "Send to Microsoft" button they would have the staff to look at them.

[Eric Veteran]

once again, I wish when you hit the "Send to Microsoft" button they would have the staff to look at them.

They do look at them, they just don't respond to them individually. If they see a pattern they research it and try to fix it if it's a Windows defect. You'll occasionally see knowledge base articles that are marked as 'under investigation' still.

[speedstr3789]

I love how immediately it's something that Ms has done. Never in a million years could it be something else..How quickly people lay blame on things other than their own doing....

[ajua]

I had a problem like that some months ago and it turned out that Firefox was at fault here. There are many confirmed cases of this problem and Firefox (as strange as it sounds) has an entry somewhere on their community bugs list.

My problem went away with new versions of Firefox and two or three updated (for Windows 7) applications.

[Eric Veteran]

I had a problem like that some months ago and it turned out that Firefox was at fault here. There are many confirmed cases of this problem and Firefox (as strange as it sounds) has an entry somewhere on their community bugs list.

My problem went away with new versions of Firefox and two or three updated (for Windows 7) applications.

I found that problem while researching as well, but I think it was a different library that was causing the crash than this issue.

[Anonymous_101]

lets try and stay on topic here. Also explorer.exe just crashed. Same error and everything. I didnt right click it just crashed on its own.

[YounGMessiah]

Do a fresh install of Windows 7; should help eliminate the problem..

[sullysnet]

Are you sure it's wrong? We haven't discovered the reason for Anon's crash. Bad shell extensions are a common reason for Explorer crashes along with malware. His HJT log doesn't show any malware, so I'm going to the next step. You're welcome to chip in and help if you like, but just saying "wrong" doesn't fix anything. :)

Well you can look at this list and tell me which of the MS extensions is causing the issue???? Here is the report and as you will see there is NOTHING but the default extensions there and running. Oh and Bluewire, you have that on your machine as well it is something that is installed by default :|

http://rapidshare.com/files/305743880/Shel...nsions_List.mht

Right now my machines Explorer crashed and nothing is open. Some are saying it is Firefox 3.5 and that was one thing I had closed... but I had closed it almost 2 minutes or so before the Explorer crash. Oh and the crash was from right clicking on the desktop. Once it crashes I can get it to do it over and over again by either right clicking, opening an explorer window or closing

one.

Here are the event logs http://rapidshare.com/files/305744673/Events.evtx both from two different times I uploaded them.

http://rapidshare.com/files/305080203/app-log.evtx

Oh and sysinfo http://rapidshare.com/files/305081699/sysinfo.txt

Oh and by the way someone had mentioned Kaspersky, so I removed the app and made sure all hidden services and drivers where removed.

I'm convinced by the amount of people that have reported it, that it is a x64 issue. I didn't see a single issue like this on my Vista x32 install and I will find out soon if the x32 Win7 is an issue or not.

Do a fresh install of Windows 7; should help eliminate the problem..

others have tried this with no luck, if he wants to reload then knock yourself out

[+Neowin User 007 Subscriber²]

Notice

@%systemroot%\system32\mssvp.dll,-112

Appears in everyone's problems - it has to do with Visual Runtime Coding and the program trying to call whatever function.

Best way to figure out the issue? Backtrack and uninstall the programs in the way you installed them until you get the crash to go away.

I've beta tested x64 on all systems and I'm on x64 Windows 7 now and have never had an explorer.exe crash...but I also don't run Firefox and keep my system very clean.

[Anonymous_101]

Firefox doesnt cause my explorer.exe to crash. I have had it where i have restarted and not even used it and explorer crashes.

[lars77]

Best way to figure out the issue? Backtrack and uninstall the programs in the way you installed them until you get the crash to go away.

+1. Yeah it's very, very annoying. My Vista 64's explorer.exe used to crash all the time. Eventually I figured out it was b/c of Taskbar Shuffle, so apparently programs that do things to the task bar can also cause explorer.exe crashes.

[sullysnet]

Well that is out since I have next to nothing installed. Opera, Firefox, Trillian, Flash, Java and both Flash and Java I had removed while testing in previous crashes. So I would be left with no Opera no Firefox and need to surf with IE?? No thanks

Both of those applications are used by many, many on this board. Opera and Firefox along with the Java and Flash. Trillian is out of the question since it has not always been up while it crashes and another application being used by many testers and how final release.

Oh and speedstr3789 yes I am quick to blame them of course. If there is nothing on my machine like many others that are having the issue and it is still crashing I am going to blame them. If you where in my shoes of reloading 5 times you would be saying the same things. It is great when "your machine is fine" but you could careless about others.

[Preppy Veteran]

^-- What is your specific and exact crash information including fault bucket number? Can you upload the crash DMP file somewhere to be briefly checked?

It could be a hardware problem (RAM or HDD)...

Naw. The original crash information supplied in the FIRST post is indicative of a context menu handler doing bad things. Any OTHER crash may be entirely unrelated. You need the specific and exact crash data to make comments.

But -- any hardware problem is not likely to result in a user mode app crash. Hardware failures are more likely going to result in blue screens and other nastiness. =\

Greywolf's comments on the previous page are spot on.

[sullysnet]

no BSOD here that would be easier since you can view the dump files but this gives me little info into the conflicting application, driver or service. Not sure how anyone could say with my list that I posted that any shell extension is an issue... look at the list they are all default applications that you have as well and no third party extensions at all.

Right now I installed Win7 x32 and in the same config as in my Win7 x64 build. I loaded only Opera and Firefox with no java or flash. I loaded Trillian as well so I can communicate with others. I will just do the normal surfing and using the computer like I did

on x64 and see what the results are.

[gertin]

This actually happened to me yesterday. Explorer.exe just started crashing for no reason, it happened around 6 times, but then it stopped. I'm not sure what it was.

[+Neowin User 007 Subscriber²]

Ok...

I use Trillian 4.1 and I have no problems whatsoever.

What you're failing to realize that even if it has been installed or is installed it doesn't have to be open to be running (break a codec in WMP and you'll find out the hard way when you try to close WMP and it stays open).

I've never tried Opera so I can't comment on that but Firefox I'm assuming would work with x64 as they are pretty good on that.

There's something else going on...and I still don't believe it's Micro$oft's fault as much as I would love to blame them.

EDIT:

I have currently installed...

Adobe CS4 (ALL PRODUCTS Adobe makes)

Steam (Lot's O-Games)

Sim City 4

Trillian 4.0

Zune

iTunes (Yuck, for a friend for his iPhone F/W update)

Quicktime

Creative X-Fi Stuff

Office 2007 Ult.

WinRAR

Logitech Stuff

LastPass

Dameon Tools

etcetc

I've yet to have any exe related problems.

[soldier1st]

if explorer is crashing then it must be something that is hooked into it as explorer won't crash unless something is acting up that has any hooks into explorer, use process explorer and check for any suspicious dlls that are loaded in explorer, have you tried removing avast? also a format is not needed unless explorer is corrupted that you can't do anything.

[MagicAndre1981]

could you use Adplus.vbs or the WER service to generate dumps of the explorer crashes and upload them?

[Anonymous_101]

i dont know how. Also its still crashing like a mother.

[MagicAndre1981]

copy the following code into a textfile and save it as .reg file. Now make a double click on the reg file to import it.

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Windows Error Reporting\LocalDumps\Explorer.exe]
"DumpFolder"=hex(2):43,00,3a,00,5c,00,4c,00,6f,00,63,00,61,00,6c,00,44,00,75,\
  00,6d,00,70,00,73,00,00,00

When explorer crashes again Windows Error Reporting Services creates a dump file under C:\Localdumps. Please zip it and upload it.

[sullysnet]

if explorer is crashing then it must be something that is hooked into it as explorer won't crash unless something is acting up that has any hooks into explorer, use process explorer and check for any suspicious dlls that are loaded in explorer, have you tried removing avast? also a format is not needed unless explorer is corrupted that you can't do anything.

I have tried just that and I only see system related dll's attached to explorer.exe

Trust me I would love to go along with the fact that it is another application because then I could just upgrade it or maybe stop using it. The fact is if I cannot use something like Firefox or Opera for my browser and use Win7 at the same time then I will just move back to Vista. I use and need those applications and I do not use IE. Trillian also is a must since I pay for that application and refuse to not use it because it cannot work on Win7.

Right now I am on x32 version of Win7 which the SAME installed applications and so far I have not experienced a crash, but I am only on my second day of testing. Usually it would crash by now but I feel two days of testing using the machine in a normal way is a pretty good test time. I plan to install Flash and Java tomorrow and test again.

[Preppy Veteran]

The original crash data supplied by Anon is about 98% likely a bogus context menu handler. Any other crash would best be analyzed by looking at the fault data/DMP file. Identification of *what* context menu handler it is would be predicated upon having the DMP file to look at.

The most effective thing you can do is to supply the crash DMP file that people asked for and MagicAndre provided great instructions for how to provide - if my own weren't sufficient. Any other typing you're doing is simply wasting time and increasing your time to solution. :)

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