Solved File Explorer is going to be the death of me - "Interface not registered"

izzyforeal · Nov 9, 2023

Hello everyone, I just did a fresh install of Windows 11 and have the error "Interface not registered" when I try to double click to open a folder in File Explorer. I can right click the folder and select "Open" but that's not the fix. Can anyone help with this disaster? I have already re-registered all the DLL files, restarted and got nothing. Any help would be appreciated, thanks in anticipation of some assistance. - Izzy

izzyforeal · Nov 9, 2023

izzyforeal said:
Hello everyone, I just did a fresh install of Windows 11 and have the error "Interface not registered" when I try to double click to open a folder in File Explorer. I can right click the folder and select "Open" but that's not the fix. Can anyone help with this disaster? I have already re-registered all the DLL files, restarted and got nothing. Any help would be appreciated, thanks in anticipation of some assistance. - Izzy

View attachment 77191

I reinstalled Windows and it has repaired itself. FM I guess.

glasskuter · Nov 9, 2023

Hello,

If I was just guessing (and I am) I would suspect file corruption. Could you please give a little more info so we can better advise you how to deal with the problem.
You say you did a clean install. Did you also install any third party app that alters the GUI?
Are you saying you cannot double click on ANY file/ folder and get it to open? How about a folder that is not part of your user account such as C:\windows.
Will it open?

I am assuming you are using a MS account. Did you attempt to alter the location of any of your personal folders or do anything regarding onedrive in any way. (With a MS account all personal folders except music and videos default to Onedrive. You have only 5 gb of free Onedrive storage)
I see that folder is itunes which makes me believe you have installed itunes on this new installation. Is that correct or did you copy that folder from another installation?

Are you able to search in Windows? If so, make sure you have no corrupt system files that is causing this problem. Search for command. Click on command prompt in search results and select run as administrator. Type the following command.
sfc /scannow
Pay attention to the scan results to see if SFC found anything it could not repair. If it found corruption it could not fix followup with this command (note the spaces)
dism /online /cleanup-image /restorehealth
Restart computer
(Note-you can follow up with another sfc /scannow command to make sure that dism repaired the files)

If you have installed any software at all, perform a clean boot to eliminate software conflict causing the issue. If it doesn't happen in a clean boot, you have some software conflicting with Windows. Brink's procedure will help you weed out which one. Perform a Clean Boot in Windows 11 to Troubleshoot Software Conflicts Tutorial

If your problem is system wide when using file explorer, you can do a repair Install or do another clean install.
Repair Install Windows 11 with an In-place Upgrade Tutorial
If your problem is limited to only opening your user files, it would indicate corruption within your account. That be the case, a repair install WILL NOT help.Create a new user account with administrative priviledges and see if the problem exists in that new account.

Report back what is happening.

EDIT: I was typing and didn't see your answer. So everything is OK now???

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