Help fix Windows Explorer from freezing when opening images

Hi,

I've had an issue with Windows Explorer freezing when trying to interact with an image file. Task Manager always shows the wrong icon for it as well.

I've searched and tried at least these:
SFC
DISM
Rebuild icon cache
Restart windows explorer
Restart PC

There's a couple other things I've tried I can't recall right now but found on websites trying to remedy this.

I would appreciate any guidance on what to do.

Windows 11 Pro

Use Option 2 in this tutorial for every file type marked photos to see if it makes a difference. Restart afterwards.

Sorry about that. Must have been some issue on my end or with Google last night. It works fine this morning.

EDIT: I'm not crazy, I inadvertantly posted this into the wrong thread. Has nothing to do with yours.

I see slowness with any type of files in folders, depends upon how many files and if doing a fresh opening since last boot-up or re-opening, indexing.

This guide focuses on how you can fix Windows File Explorer not responding on a Windows 10 or Windows 11 operating systems.

Update: Upon a clean reboot as shown in the video, I can now open pictures again. I finished going through all the services in msconfig, reenabling them one by one, then restarting the PC and didn't find one that caused a problem. I haven't finished going through all the startup items in Task Manager... there's quite a lot to go through between services and startup. However, the icon for Windows Explorer is still the wrong one, and I'll post it below, and maybe someone will have experienced it before:

First found the startup program causing the problem.

The Explorer named File Explorer not Windows Explorer.

File Explorer. When I re-enabled Ditto, the behavior began again. I've been using Ditto for probably over a year, so I wonder what changed?

Really, the more I think about it, I believe my problems began after I installed a new VPN from Private Internet Access back in December. I'd been using ExpressVPN, but it would no longer work, and their technical support couldn't get it to work either, even when their technician remotely took over my computer. Their solution was to ask me if I had any other computers I'd like to see if ExpressVPN would work with, which is a really bad solution. I'd been having issues with ExpressVPN for a while, and many, many people online had the same problem as me. It just stopped connecting one day, and then I couldn't uninstall or reinstall it. It had done this previously on another laptop, and after a few releases of their software, it finally installed again.

But after installing Private Internet Access (PIA), several things have happened.
1. PIA doesn't work on my PC and their support couldn't figure out why. I'm currently not using it and it's not installed on PC
2. Listary started freezing and I'd been using it for over a year
3. I'd noticed the icon was wrong for File Explorer in Task Manager for a long time
4. I recently found that clicking on an image in File Explorer freezes it. (I use FreeCommander almost always so never had clicked on an image in File Explorer until recently and saw that it froze.)
5. At some point, my computer lost the ability to sleep when I closed the lid. MiTeC has an app called Machine Journal that I could look at and see that my PC was no longer going to sleep. It currently doesn't go back far enough to tell me when this happened. I had noticed that when I opened the laptop lid, it was no longer asking for my password, and Machine Journal told me it wasn't sleeping anymore.
6.. If I use the hotkey Win + L, it takes me to the lock screen I've always seen which has a blue Windows 11 themed picture. If I shutdown or restart my computer, though, when it gets to the lock screen, the blue image is not there, it's just a plain black screen with white writing on it to enter my password. It used to go to the same blue lock screen as described before.
7. Just today, when I reenabled Ditto, the issue of File Explorer freezing when clicking an image resurfaced

This laptop is only about 5-6 months old and I was hoping to get it to a state I was happy with and start backing it up, etc. but PIA happened prior to that. I had been counting on system restore and, of course, all my restore points were deleted after I installed PIA the first time so I couldn't go back to a good state. Why does Windows periodically just delete your restore points? It is maddening.

With all the weird things my PC has begun to do, I might be to the point of wanting to do some type of repair in place or something similar. I have a lot of apps on my PC, and I don't want to have to reinstall them all. I definitely don't look forward to having to redo all the settings for each. Can you advise me on what options I have and what is probably the best way to go if I don't want to lose any apps, data, settings, etc.? Even after fixing the File Explorer freezing, I have all the other issues I'd want to try and remedy.

Thanks,

You can also perform in-place upgrade of Windows 11. In-place upgrade is to use to replace the current operating system files on your computer. Unlike a clean installation of Windows, you can start a Windows in-place upgrade when your OS is still running. And an in-place upgrade can keep your files, settings, & apps during the upgrade process. You can perform a Windows 11 in-place upgrade is to use the Windows 11 Media Creation Tool. Make sure to select Upgrade this PC now and click Next. Follow the on-screen guide to perform a Windows 11 in-place upgrade.

OK... thank you for the information and the link. If you were me, would you do an in-place upgrade or continue to try to resolve all those issues on my list before resorting to an in-place upgrade? I've never done that before that I remember, and I am slightly scared. I guess my question is: is this a fairly common method to resolve problems with Windows?

Thanks again for taking the time to help me resolve my issues.

Yes, i would try in-place upgrade and if it won't help i would clean install Windows 11.

FreeBooter, I made an image of my PC with Clonzilla and then accomplished the in-place upgrade but it didn't fix any of my problems. Still have wrong File Explorer icon, freezing on images, etc.

I have a lot of apps that took a lot of time to set up for my personal taste, and I am hating this next step. What can you recommend I do to make a clean install as painless as possible?

I'm in the market now for some backup software but I don't want to pay a yearly subscription because I'm sick of that pay model. Any that you recommend? Free would be better than paid. I read a lot of people loved Macrium but they ended their free plan.

I very much appreciate you taking the time again to help me out.

I hope the below videos will help with clean-installing Windows 11 and getting back your personal settings for apps and your user account.


In this video guide, you will learn the steps to use the Windows Package Manager tool to export and import apps on Windows 10 and 11.

Download the portable CloneApp application.

You can also backup your user profile just in case. You will learn how to backup and restore user profile on Windows, without spending hours customizing the new computer.

I used your videos and have completed a repair install and then getting my personal settings back into software, etc. and all is working great again. I thank you very much FreeBooter for your valuable assistance.

carfar said:

I used your videos and have completed a repair install and then getting my personal settings back into software, etc. and all is working great again. I thank you very much FreeBooter for your valuable assistance.

Click to expand...

You are very welcome!