I'm experiencing a very strange issue inside of windows explorer. I could really use the fix because its beginning to drive me nuts.
Inside Windows Explorer, at any given time (I'm not sure what sets it off, I've had theories and did some trial and errors but to no avail) the main pane, and the sidebar go completely numb I'd call it. I wouldn't say frozen because of what exactly is going on, but it is in the frozen/crash family, and I need some advice/help/solutions please.
Here's whats going on. I could be browsing a folder in explorer and then all of a sudden, I'm not able to click on anyfile. It's almost as if explorer is about to crash and restart, but it doesn't. I am able to fully navigate explorer from the top area where the tabs are (I can open as many more new tabs as I want and they are not frozen) I can press Back, Forward, Up and Refresh. I can go to the address bar and change the directory I'm in. I can use search. I can press copy, paste, cut, etc. I can add a new folder, and see it inside the root folder. But i cant click on it. ANYTHING BELOW the commands for cut copy paste view and sort is in a hybrid state. For instance, I cannot click on anyfile, instead of being blue, its stuck on gray and it won't move. However, if i minimize and then restore and immediately press the tab button, I am able to navigate through the files with my arrow keys. The second i try to right click on anything, it "freezes" again. During this time, the entire sidebar (quick access) is "frozen" as well. Although, the tab workaround also works with the sidebar. I am able to navigate the sidebar using arrows, but the second i go to press any file it greys up.
Explorer doesn't crash or restart, and I can't seem to find an issue in event viewer. This is making it very difficult for me to track down the culprit. If i add a tab and close the current "frozen" window, everything is all good again (until it happens again).
I've obviously ran sfc /scannow . chkdsk which didn't return with any errors.
Glary Malware, Wise 365, Microsoft Defender, and various other tools to detect the issue have been downloaded and nothing is telling me what the problem is.
Can it be a context menu issue? I dont know, sometimes the freeze happens when just scrolling through files and not actually right clicking them. I thought for sure I had down when i did 2 clicks of my middle button of the mouse, and the explorer froze. I had procmon running and recording to tell me what was going on. I was super excited. I then came to realize, procmon didnt have an answer, and when I tried to replicate the double click, it never froze again. So that theory is gone. After that i began to notice every time it happens, I have 2 instances of explorer running. 2 separate folders - not in the same tab. But then again, its happened when theres only 1 window open, so theory gone. What's driving me nuts is that if it was once in a while okay whatever, i close the tab i open a new tab life goes on... but in the last 20 minutes it happened to me 4 times. I've tried ccleaner, shellexview, rightclickenhancer to look for bad context menu items. I've reinstalled windows doing a repair install. The real problem is that I don't know what triggers it, so it'll be hard for me to turn off all services and do a quick boot. I have no idea what sets it off so I won't know which service is messing with it, if it is a service in the first place.
I guess what I'd like to know is, a) Has anybody ever heard of this ever? I've never experienced this issue in the past, and all of a sudden it's an everyday occurance. b) if you have heard of it, did you come across a solution. b2) if you haven't heard of it - what do you recommend that I haven't tried? Is clean boot easier than I'm dreading it to be? I just have no clue and I ran out of ideas.
Perhaps it is some shell extension, but I can't recognize whats causing it. I just.. I just don't know!
Thank you guys for reading and watching the video and replying and sharing anything at all that comes to mind, because that just may be the fix!
Inside Windows Explorer, at any given time (I'm not sure what sets it off, I've had theories and did some trial and errors but to no avail) the main pane, and the sidebar go completely numb I'd call it. I wouldn't say frozen because of what exactly is going on, but it is in the frozen/crash family, and I need some advice/help/solutions please.
Here's whats going on. I could be browsing a folder in explorer and then all of a sudden, I'm not able to click on anyfile. It's almost as if explorer is about to crash and restart, but it doesn't. I am able to fully navigate explorer from the top area where the tabs are (I can open as many more new tabs as I want and they are not frozen) I can press Back, Forward, Up and Refresh. I can go to the address bar and change the directory I'm in. I can use search. I can press copy, paste, cut, etc. I can add a new folder, and see it inside the root folder. But i cant click on it. ANYTHING BELOW the commands for cut copy paste view and sort is in a hybrid state. For instance, I cannot click on anyfile, instead of being blue, its stuck on gray and it won't move. However, if i minimize and then restore and immediately press the tab button, I am able to navigate through the files with my arrow keys. The second i try to right click on anything, it "freezes" again. During this time, the entire sidebar (quick access) is "frozen" as well. Although, the tab workaround also works with the sidebar. I am able to navigate the sidebar using arrows, but the second i go to press any file it greys up.
Explorer doesn't crash or restart, and I can't seem to find an issue in event viewer. This is making it very difficult for me to track down the culprit. If i add a tab and close the current "frozen" window, everything is all good again (until it happens again).
I've obviously ran sfc /scannow . chkdsk which didn't return with any errors.
Glary Malware, Wise 365, Microsoft Defender, and various other tools to detect the issue have been downloaded and nothing is telling me what the problem is.
Can it be a context menu issue? I dont know, sometimes the freeze happens when just scrolling through files and not actually right clicking them. I thought for sure I had down when i did 2 clicks of my middle button of the mouse, and the explorer froze. I had procmon running and recording to tell me what was going on. I was super excited. I then came to realize, procmon didnt have an answer, and when I tried to replicate the double click, it never froze again. So that theory is gone. After that i began to notice every time it happens, I have 2 instances of explorer running. 2 separate folders - not in the same tab. But then again, its happened when theres only 1 window open, so theory gone. What's driving me nuts is that if it was once in a while okay whatever, i close the tab i open a new tab life goes on... but in the last 20 minutes it happened to me 4 times. I've tried ccleaner, shellexview, rightclickenhancer to look for bad context menu items. I've reinstalled windows doing a repair install. The real problem is that I don't know what triggers it, so it'll be hard for me to turn off all services and do a quick boot. I have no idea what sets it off so I won't know which service is messing with it, if it is a service in the first place.
I guess what I'd like to know is, a) Has anybody ever heard of this ever? I've never experienced this issue in the past, and all of a sudden it's an everyday occurance. b) if you have heard of it, did you come across a solution. b2) if you haven't heard of it - what do you recommend that I haven't tried? Is clean boot easier than I'm dreading it to be? I just have no clue and I ran out of ideas.
Perhaps it is some shell extension, but I can't recognize whats causing it. I just.. I just don't know!
Thank you guys for reading and watching the video and replying and sharing anything at all that comes to mind, because that just may be the fix!
- Windows Build/Version
- Windows 11 Pro 261000.4652
My Computer
System One
-
- OS
- Windows 11
- Computer type
- Laptop
- Manufacturer/Model
- Lenovo Yoga 7 14ITL5
