"File Open" Explorer dialog crashes all the time

[General Domel]

There are lots and lots of applications that fail whenever they are supposed to call Win 10's "File Open" or "File Save as" dialog. The worst example is a commercial software, officially released for Win 10, that I installed two days ago. I cannot even use it because I cannot open a file: Whenever I click "open", the mouse cursor turns ... and turns ... and turns ... and turns ... and turns ..., the dialog that should pop up is never seen, and clicking on the app window again produces a "no response" message. Software that uses its own file-open routines instead of relying on that of Windows works flawlessly, though, so the culprit is evidently the Win 10 File Explorer.

Further observations:
- There is no entry in the event manager that would tell why the "File Open" dialog failed.
- There is no malware/virus found, deactivating Firewall, Defender etc. does not solve the problem.
- Changing File Explorer settings does not solve the problem.
- Installing all the latest updates does not solve the problem.
- sfc /scannow has been run twice and does not detect any error.- System restore does not solve the problem.
- Clean Boot does not solve the problem.
- Creating a new user does not solve the problem.

This has been going on for months now. There is very clearly a very severe malfunction in the File Explorer that renders Win 10 all but useless.
BTW, a few apps may be restarted after the "no response" crash and would then open the "File Open" dialog and operate normally. But only until Win 10 is shut down. In any case, the problem would return as soon as Win 10 is rebooted.

Any suggestions how to work around the problem, short of killing Windows and installing something sensible?

 

[General Domel]

The problem is getting worse and worse. Since the last bunch of updates I cannot open any file commander any more. None. Nada. They ALL freeze at the startup screen. I cannot install software any more: It freezes when the file explorer is supposed to open to define the installation path. And Microsoft has no answer at all.

Win 10 is AN ABSOLUTE CATASTROPHE. I have thought Win 8 was a nightmare, but this beats it by far.

 

[General Domel]

Here is an example. I try to start Double Commander, newly installed, and this is what WhatIsHang reports. I take it that the problem is with Kernelbase.dll, IOW, it's Microsoft's fault. Anyone to suggest a solution?

Hang report for E:\Werkzeuge\Double Commander\doublecmd.exe
Generated by using WhatIsHang on 14.11.2016 17:38:30
Web site: http://www.nirsoft.net


Remarks:
* The program hangs in a single system call. You can look in the call stack and stack data to find out which API function cause this hang.


Strings found in the stack:
d$0^_[Ã
\??\j:\
?HUUUUUÅ¿›† Iú¨½?N{î!>ÆK¬~O~’¾õ
d$ ^_[Ã
d$0A]A\^_[ÃSWVATHd$ØH‰Ë
d$(A\^_[Ã


Modules found in the stack:
C:\WINDOWS\System32\KERNELBASE.dll , Microsoft Corporation , Betriebssystem Microsoft® Windows®, Client-DLL für Windows NT-Basis-API

ThreadID: 4560


Execute Address:
00007FF93A7E54C4 ntdll.dll!NtOpenFile+0x14

Call Stack:
00000000013FF5E9 4000000000013FF5


Stack Data:
00000000013FF568 00007FF937A9A8F8 KERNELBASE.dll!GetVolumeInformationW+0xc8
00000000013FF570 0000000008FC8AA8
00000000013FF578 000000010000D39A doublecmd.exe+0xd39a
00000000013FF580 00000000013FF618
00000000013FF588 000000010000DFF1 doublecmd.exe+0xdff1
00000000013FF590 0000000000000000
00000000013FF598 0000000100004021 doublecmd.exe+0x4021
00000000013FF5A0 00000000013FF6B8
00000000013FF5A8 000000010000F035 doublecmd.exe+0xf035
00000000013FF5B0 000000000000005C
00000000013FF5B8 0000000008FC8A50
00000000013FF5C0 000000000010000E
00000000013FF5C8 0000000004E8A5B0 => \??\j:\
00000000013FF5D0 00000000013FF620
00000000013FF5D8 000000010000F0F9 doublecmd.exe+0xf0f9
00000000013FF5E0 0000000000000030
00000000013FF5E8 0000000000000000
00000000013FF5F0 00000000013FF5C0
00000000013FF5F8 00007FF900000040
00000000013FF600 0000000000000000
00000000013FF608 0000000000000000
00000000013FF610 0000000008FA0BB0
00000000013FF618 0000000008FC8A50
00000000013FF620 00000000013FF8D0
00000000013FF628 0000000100088CBB doublecmd.exe+0x88cbb
00000000013FF630 0000000008FC8A0A
00000000013FF638 00000000013FF958
00000000013FF640 000000010052E001 doublecmd.exe+0x52e001
00000000013FF648 0000000000000002
00000000013FF650 00000000013FF8C8
00000000013FF658 00000000013FF8C8
00000000013FF660 0000000000000000
00000000013FF668 0000000000000000
00000000013FF670 00000000000017BC
00000000013FF678 000000010052E06A doublecmd.exe+0x52e06a
00000000013FF680 0000000000000009
00000000013FF688 0000000008FC8A50
00000000013FF690 0000000000000000
00000000013FF698 0000000000000000
00000000013FF6A0 0000000000000000
00000000013FF6A8 0000000000000000
00000000013FF6B0 0000000000000000
00000000013FF6B8 0000000008FC8AA8
00000000013FF6C0 0000000000000000
00000000013FF6C8 0000000000000000
00000000013FF6D0 00006F8295223B2B
00000000013FF6D8 0000000100014AAD doublecmd.exe+0x14aad
00000000013FF6E0 000000000000045D
00000000013FF6E8 0000000100014AAD doublecmd.exe+0x14aad
00000000013FF6F0 00006F8295223B4B
00000000013FF6F8 0000000000000009
00000000013FF700 0000000000000002
00000000013FF708 0000000000000003
00000000013FF710 00000000013FF810
00000000013FF718 00000001000137FE doublecmd.exe+0x137fe
00000000013FF720 0000000208FC84D0
00000000013FF728 0000000100013D2A doublecmd.exe+0x13d2a
00000000013FF730 0000000000000002
00000000013FF738 0000000000000001
00000000013FF740 0000000000000040
00000000013FF748 00000001000137FE doublecmd.exe+0x137fe
00000000013FF750 0000000000000002
00000000013FF758 0000000000000000
00000000013FF760 0000000000000040
00000000013FF778 00007FF93A79F5C0 ntdll.dll!RtlRestoreLastWin32Error+0x40
00000000013FF788 00007FF93A77C468 ntdll.dll!RtlFreeHeap+0x358
00000000013FF7D8 00000001000140B4 doublecmd.exe+0x140b4
00000000013FF7F8 000000010052E06A doublecmd.exe+0x52e06a
00000000013FF818 0000000100012D8B doublecmd.exe+0x12d8b
00000000013FF828 000000010001FA81 doublecmd.exe+0x1fa81
00000000013FF838 0000000100011730 doublecmd.exe+0x11730
00000000013FF848 000000010000B6D5 doublecmd.exe+0xb6d5
00000000013FF858 000000010052E06A doublecmd.exe+0x52e06a
00000000013FF868 0000000100013A97 doublecmd.exe+0x13a97
00000000013FF888 000000010052FDE9 doublecmd.exe+0x52fde9
00000000013FF898 000000010000A6E2 doublecmd.exe+0xa6e2
00000000013FF8A8 000000010025BF6E doublecmd.exe+0x25bf6e
00000000013FF8B8 000000010052E06A doublecmd.exe+0x52e06a
00000000013FF8D8 000000010031C267 doublecmd.exe+0x31c267
00000000013FF8F8 000000010019989C doublecmd.exe+0x19989c
00000000013FF920 000000010052E020 doublecmd.exe+0x52e020
00000000013FF978 000000010018A179 doublecmd.exe+0x18a179
00000000013FF988 0000000100014AAD doublecmd.exe+0x14aad
00000000013FF9B8 000000010018E6C0 doublecmd.exe+0x18e6c0
00000000013FF9C8 00000001000137FE doublecmd.exe+0x137fe
00000000013FF9D8 00007FF93A79F5C0 ntdll.dll!RtlRestoreLastWin32Error+0x40
00000000013FF9F8 00000001000102F5 doublecmd.exe+0x102f5
00000000013FFA18 000000010019BF1B doublecmd.exe+0x19bf1b
00000000013FFA48 000000010019C037 doublecmd.exe+0x19c037
00000000013FFA68 00000001000BEBC0 doublecmd.exe+0xbebc0
00000000013FFA78 000000010019BF1B doublecmd.exe+0x19bf1b
00000000013FFAA8 000000010019C037 doublecmd.exe+0x19c037
00000000013FFAD8 000000010019BF1B doublecmd.exe+0x19bf1b
00000000013FFAE8 0000000100193798 doublecmd.exe+0x193798
00000000013FFB08 000000010019C037 doublecmd.exe+0x19c037
00000000013FFB18 0000000100000003 doublecmd.exe+0x3
00000000013FFB28 000000010019363E doublecmd.exe+0x19363e
00000000013FFB68 0000000100199645 doublecmd.exe+0x199645
00000000013FFB98 0000000100070833 doublecmd.exe+0x70833
00000000013FFBA8 000000010019F1FC doublecmd.exe+0x19f1fc
00000000013FFBB8 000000010006B77D doublecmd.exe+0x6b77d
00000000013FFBD8 000000010052E020 doublecmd.exe+0x52e020
00000000013FFBE8 0000000100072A66 doublecmd.exe+0x72a66
00000000013FFBF8 000000010000000B doublecmd.exe+0xb
00000000013FFC78 0000000100066B61 doublecmd.exe+0x66b61
00000000013FFC88 0000000100139AE5 doublecmd.exe+0x139ae5
00000000013FFCB0 00000001005A5088 doublecmd.exe+0x5a5088
00000000013FFCB8 00000001000725D0 doublecmd.exe+0x725d0
00000000013FFCE8 00000001000479A1 doublecmd.exe+0x479a1
00000000013FFCF8 00000001000EA2A2 doublecmd.exe+0xea2a2
00000000013FFD28 0000000100045AB5 doublecmd.exe+0x45ab5
00000000013FFD40 00000001005A5088 doublecmd.exe+0x5a5088
00000000013FFD48 000000010052E020 doublecmd.exe+0x52e020
00000000013FFD78 000000010006B375 doublecmd.exe+0x6b375
00000000013FFD88 00000001001D4A3D doublecmd.exe+0x1d4a3d
00000000013FFD98 0000000100000007 doublecmd.exe+0x7
00000000013FFDC8 0000000100054C37 doublecmd.exe+0x54c37
00000000013FFDE8 000000010007EF2D doublecmd.exe+0x7ef2d
00000000013FFDF8 0000000100087600 doublecmd.exe+0x87600
00000000013FFE10 00000001008900C0 doublecmd.exe+0x8900c0
00000000013FFE18 00000001005C1798 doublecmd.exe+0x5c1798
00000000013FFE28 0000000100003A3D doublecmd.exe+0x3a3d
00000000013FFE70 00000001005A5300 doublecmd.exe+0x5a5300
00000000013FFE80 00000001005A5328 doublecmd.exe+0x5a5328
00000000013FFE90 00000001005A5348 doublecmd.exe+0x5a5348
00000000013FFEB8 0000000100003BC6 doublecmd.exe+0x3bc6
00000000013FFEE8 00000001000181D3 doublecmd.exe+0x181d3
00000000013FFF28 0000000100018B06 doublecmd.exe+0x18b06
00000000013FFF58 00007FF938F98364 KERNEL32.DLL!BaseThreadInitThunk+0x14
00000000013FFF88 00007FF93A7A5E91 ntdll.dll!RtlUserThreadStart+0x21


Processor Registers:
RAX: 00000000000017BC
RBX: 0000000004E8A5B0 => \??\j:\
RCX: 0000000000000002
RDX: 0000000000000000
RSI: 0000000000000000
RDI: 000000000000005C
RBP: 00000000013FF5E9
RSP: 00000000013FF568
RIP: 00007FF93A7E54C4 ntdll.dll!NtOpenFile+0x14





All Threads:
4560 00007FF93A7A5E91 ntdll.dll!RtlUserThreadStart+0x21
184 00007FF93A7A5E91 ntdll.dll!RtlUserThreadStart+0x21
4256 00007FF93A7A5E91 ntdll.dll!RtlUserThreadStart+0x21


All Modules:
0000000100000000 - 00000001009E0000 E:\Werkzeuge\Double Commander\doublecmd.exe , , Double Commander, Double Commander is a cross platform open source file manager with two panels side by side
00007FF93A740000 - 00007FF93A911000 C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\ntdll.dll , Microsoft Corporation , Betriebssystem Microsoft® Windows®, DLL für NT-Layer
00007FF938F90000 - 00007FF93903B000 C:\WINDOWS\System32\KERNEL32.DLL , Microsoft Corporation , Betriebssystem Microsoft® Windows®, Client-DLL für Windows NT-Basis-API
00007FF937A90000 - 00007FF937CAD000 C:\WINDOWS\System32\KERNELBASE.dll , Microsoft Corporation , Betriebssystem Microsoft® Windows®, Client-DLL für Windows NT-Basis-API
00007FF9380B0000 - 00007FF93816F000 C:\WINDOWS\System32\oleaut32.dll , Microsoft Corporation , Microsoft® Windows® Operating System, OLEAUT32.DLL
00007FF936C10000 - 00007FF936CAC000 C:\WINDOWS\System32\msvcp_win.dll , Microsoft Corporation , Microsoft® Windows® Operating System, Microsoft® C Runtime Library
00007FF9375D0000 - 00007FF9376C5000 C:\WINDOWS\System32\ucrtbase.dll , Microsoft Corporation , Microsoft® Windows® Operating System, Microsoft® C Runtime Library
00007FF938240000 - 00007FF938507000 C:\WINDOWS\System32\combase.dll , Microsoft Corporation , Betriebssystem Microsoft® Windows®, Microsoft COM für Windows
00007FF937E80000 - 00007FF937FA1000 C:\WINDOWS\System32\RPCRT4.dll , Microsoft Corporation , Betriebssystem Microsoft® Windows®, Remoteprozeduraufruf-Laufzeitumgebung
00007FF937A20000 - 00007FF937A8A000 C:\WINDOWS\System32\bcryptPrimitives.dll , Microsoft Corporation , Microsoft® Windows® Operating System, Windows Cryptographic Primitives Library
00007FF937CB0000 - 00007FF937E15000 C:\WINDOWS\System32\user32.dll , Microsoft Corporation , Betriebssystem Microsoft® Windows®, Client-DLL für Windows USER-API (mehrere Benutzer)
00007FF9376D0000 - 00007FF9376EE000 C:\WINDOWS\System32\win32u.dll , Microsoft Corporation , Microsoft® Windows® Operating System, Win32u
00007FF9389A0000 - 00007FF9389D4000 C:\WINDOWS\System32\GDI32.dll , Microsoft Corporation , Microsoft® Windows® Operating System, GDI Client DLL
00007FF937440000 - 00007FF9375C2000 C:\WINDOWS\System32\gdi32full.dll , Microsoft Corporation , Microsoft® Windows® Operating System, GDI Client DLL
00007FF93A560000 - 00007FF93A697000 C:\WINDOWS\System32\ole32.dll , Microsoft Corporation , Betriebssystem Microsoft® Windows®, Microsoft OLE für Windows
00007FF937FB0000 - 00007FF938009000 C:\WINDOWS\System32\sechost.dll , Microsoft Corporation , Microsoft® Windows® Operating System, Host for SCM/SDDL/LSA Lookup APIs
00007FF938EE0000 - 00007FF938F82000 C:\WINDOWS\System32\advapi32.dll , Microsoft Corporation , Betriebssystem Microsoft® Windows®, Erweiterte Windows 32 Base-API
00007FF93A6A0000 - 00007FF93A73E000 C:\WINDOWS\System32\msvcrt.dll , Microsoft Corporation , Microsoft® Windows® Operating System, Windows NT CRT DLL
00007FF939050000 - 00007FF93A559000 C:\WINDOWS\System32\shell32.dll , Microsoft Corporation , Betriebssystem Microsoft® Windows®, Allgemeine Windows-Shell-DLL
00007FF9379D0000 - 00007FF937A12000 C:\WINDOWS\System32\cfgmgr32.dll , Microsoft Corporation , Microsoft® Windows® Operating System, Configuration Manager DLL
00007FF936CB0000 - 00007FF93738A000 C:\WINDOWS\System32\windows.storage.dll , Microsoft Corporation , Betriebssystem Microsoft® Windows®, Microsoft WinRT Storage-API
00007FF936B80000 - 00007FF936BCC000 C:\WINDOWS\System32\powrprof.dll , Microsoft Corporation , Betriebssystem Microsoft® Windows®, Power Profile Helper DLL
00007FF938510000 - 00007FF938562000 C:\WINDOWS\System32\shlwapi.dll , Microsoft Corporation , Betriebssystem Microsoft® Windows®, Shell Light-weight-Hilfsprogrammbibliothek
00007FF936BD0000 - 00007FF936BDF000 C:\WINDOWS\System32\kernel.appcore.dll , Microsoft Corporation , Microsoft® Windows® Operating System, AppModel API Host
00007FF9378C0000 - 00007FF937969000 C:\WINDOWS\System32\shcore.dll , Microsoft Corporation , Betriebssystem Microsoft® Windows®, SHCORE
00007FF936BF0000 - 00007FF936C04000 C:\WINDOWS\System32\profapi.dll , Microsoft Corporation , Microsoft® Windows® Operating System, User Profile Basic API
00007FF938D60000 - 00007FF938E5A000 C:\WINDOWS\System32\comdlg32.dll , Microsoft Corporation , Betriebssystem Microsoft® Windows®, DLL für gemeinsame Dialoge
00007FF938210000 - 00007FF93823E000 C:\WINDOWS\System32\imm32.dll , Microsoft Corporation , Microsoft® Windows® Operating System, Multi-User Windows IMM32 API Client DLL
00007FF934B90000 - 00007FF934BB3000 C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\winmm.dll , Microsoft Corporation , Betriebssystem Microsoft® Windows®, MCI API-DLL
00007FF92D9B0000 - 00007FF92D9CB000 C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\mpr.dll , Microsoft Corporation , Betriebssystem Microsoft® Windows®, Router-DLL für Mehrfachanbieter
00007FF928E50000 - 00007FF928E5A000 C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\version.dll , Microsoft Corporation , Microsoft® Windows® Operating System, Version Checking and File Installation Libraries
00007FF92EA30000 - 00007FF92ECA9000 C:\WINDOWS\WinSxS\amd64_microsoft.windows.common-controls_6595b64144ccf1df_6.0.14393.447_none_42191651c6827bb3\comctl32.dll , Microsoft Corporation , Betriebssystem Microsoft® Windows®, Bibliothek für Steuerelemente
00007FF9322E0000 - 00007FF9322E7000 C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\msimg32.dll , Microsoft Corporation , Microsoft® Windows® Operating System, GDIEXT Client DLL
00007FF932B90000 - 00007FF932BA8000 C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\netapi32.dll , Microsoft Corporation , Microsoft® Windows® Operating System, Net Win32 API DLL
00007FF934B30000 - 00007FF934B5B000 C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\WINMMBASE.dll , Microsoft Corporation , Microsoft® Windows® Operating System, Base Multimedia Extension API DLL
00007FF92A700000 - 00007FF92A726000 C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\SRVCLI.DLL , Microsoft Corporation , Microsoft® Windows® Operating System, Server Service Client DLL
00007FF936150000 - 00007FF93615D000 C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\NETUTILS.DLL , Microsoft Corporation , Microsoft® Windows® Operating System, Net Win32 API Helpers DLL
00007FF9352D0000 - 00007FF935365000 C:\WINDOWS\system32\uxtheme.dll , Microsoft Corporation , Betriebssystem Microsoft® Windows®, Microsoft UxTheme-Bibliothek
00007FF92F210000 - 00007FF92F3AA000 C:\WINDOWS\WinSxS\amd64_microsoft.windows.gdiplus_6595b64144ccf1df_1.1.14393.321_none_72fe05dd211a5fae\gdiplus.dll , Microsoft Corporation , Microsoft® Windows® Operating System, Microsoft GDI+
00007FF9389F0000 - 00007FF938B4B000 C:\WINDOWS\System32\MSCTF.dll , Microsoft Corporation , Betriebssystem Microsoft® Windows®, MSCTF-Server-DLL
00007FF934A10000 - 00007FF934A36000 C:\WINDOWS\system32\dwmapi.dll , Microsoft Corporation , Betriebssystem Microsoft® Windows®, Microsoft Desktopfenster-Manager-API
00007FF936850000 - 00007FF93687C000 C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\SspiCli.dll , Microsoft Corporation , Microsoft® Windows® Operating System, Security Support Provider Interface
00007FF934630000 - 00007FF9347D8000 C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\WindowsCodecs.dll , Microsoft Corporation , Microsoft® Windows® Operating System, Microsoft Windows Codecs Library
00007FF934800000 - 00007FF934985000 C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\PROPSYS.dll , Microsoft Corporation , Windows® Search, Microsoft-Eigenschaftensystem
00007FF938010000 - 00007FF9380AF000 C:\WINDOWS\System32\clbcatq.dll , Microsoft Corporation , Microsoft® Windows® Operating System, COM+ Configuration Catalog

Edit: The main screen of Double Commander has just come up - after 15 minutes of idling. Of course, this is an absolutely inacceptable behaviour of Win 10.

 

[General Domel]

I am sure now that the kernelbase.dll is the root of all the problems, after WhatIsHang indicated it with several other programmes that hang as soon as I open as "Save as" dialog. Microsoft suggests on its homepage to re-register the DLL with the command "regsvr32 KERNELBASE.dll". Did that. It says, something called "DLL register server entry point" or some such was not found. I have no idea what that means unless it tells me that Windows 10 is delivered ex works with a defunct kernel, i. e. useless.

Any ideas?

 

[General Domel]

Just to describe the intolerable behavior this morning. My intention was to upload an avatar to this Forum. I entered the page, clicked the upload button - Firefox hung. No "Upload File" dialog. I killed the process and started Firefox again. Repeat the procedure, click the upload button - this time, an "Upload File" dialog appears, but it is blank white and reads "not responding". Closed Firefox again and restarted, now I am typing here and renounce any Avatar.

God, how much I hate Win10. IMO, Microsoft qualifies as a terrorist organisation.

 

[General Domel]

Everyday something new. Without any changes to my Win 10, Double Commander doesn't come up at all any more, however long I wait. Seems Microsoft has submitted some "improvements" again to an already totally f'cked up OS.

 

[General Domel]

Still no reply? Well, Microsoft seems incapable of coming up with any way how to make their stuff even vaguely operable.

It does not only affect third-party software, BTW. MS-Word hangs as well as soon as I try to save a file. Any file. Thank you, Microsoft!



God, how much I hate Win10.