SOLVED Cannot open File Explorer since May Update

[Grett]

After the May 9 Update, I have been unable to open Windows File Explorer.
The window opens, but nothing else. Won't let me use the curser on it at all. The tree does show at the left, but no data loads, and text is in place saying "Working on it..." But it never does open. AND, can't get rid of the window unless I go to Task Manager and End Task.
I have tried to open from various ways, like from Start, Settings, and an icon I have on my taskbar. All respond the same.

 

[Trouble]

First try something easy
Open Control Panel \ All Control Panel Items and click on File Explorer Options and on the general tab click "Clear" button in the Privacy section where it says "Clear File Explorer History"
Reboot and see if that helps.

Next you might want to try clean booting your system as described here

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/929135

Easily done, easily undone.
Basically you're just disabling all the Startup Items and All non-Microsoft services.
Be sure to check the box to hide Microsoft Services, as you don't want to accidentally disable any of those.

Finally go to Settings -> Update & Security -> Recovery (left column) -> Advanced startup -> Restart now (button)
Use that to restart your system in Safe Mode #4 and see if you have those same symptoms in Safe Mode.
You might also want to try Safe Mode with Networking #5 for further testing.

 

[Grett]

Am afraid to try any of this. Afraid I will have to hire a techy to put me back in order after I mess things up.
I CAN get into File Explorer by opening Recycle Bin and instead of emptying it, I then choose one of the tree at the left in it, and can then get to whatever I want and open any files, move them to another folder, etc. But just can't get File Explorer to open by the normal way. I figure there is something corrupt in the latest update. But have not seen any other posts here about it.

 

[Bighorn]

Can you get File Explorer to open by holding down the Windows key and pressing E? Or maybe clicking Start, scrolling down to the W section and look in Windows System? Could be the usual icon on the Taskbar is corrupted, might Unpin it then Pin a new copy.

 

[Grett]

I tried those methods again and still get the same result as clicking on the taskbar icon. When I get into Task Manager, it says of File Explorer "Not Responding." Then I End Task.

 

[Bighorn]

Since File Explorer [and the older Windows Explorer] is pretty much the core of Windows, having problems with it makes it difficult to avoid a reinstall/clean install or Reset of Windows. Work-arounds are okay but usually not as convenient as having things working properly.

Have you tried a right-click of the Desktop, New, Shortcut and in the Location box type C:\Windows\Explorer.exe then save it, should be on the Desktop, double-click to check it working?

 

[Grett]

I tried that and the new shortcut for it did not work either. Had to go to Task Manager again to again End Task.

 

[Bighorn]

I'm afraid you have a major problem with Windows and a Reset or reinstall will be necessary.

 

[Trouble]

You may want to attempt an in-place upgrade / repair install. Upgrading Windows 10 by installing it over top of itself.
There is a pretty good article here https://neosmart.net/wiki/windows-10-repair-installation/ just ignore the first couple paragraphs where they are promoting their repair products and scroll down to the meat of the article.

If you do not have the installation media....
The installation media can be obtain through this resource.
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10
Once you have the ISO, you can use ImgBurn to burn it to a DVD or Rufus to burn it to a USB ThumbDrive, or simply mount the ISO from within Windows 10 and run setup.exe from there.
Choose upgrade and make sure the box is ticked to obtain updates as part of the upgrade process.

This is a relatively simple and straight forward task and is generally non-destructive (all your data, programs, drivers, etc., should remain intact and unharmed), but.....
Personally I would still have a backup of my critical data, as well as a disk image, so I could recover in the event of some unforeseen problem.

 

[Grett]

Can you believe this? It suddenly started working. First attempt loaded it, but I couldn't move the curser and the popup said it wasn't responding. I got rid of it and tried it again. This time it worked!