There are many components that are part of the Windows operating system itself, elements of great importance in the day to day with the PC. Among these we can find the Settings application, the Control Panel or the File Explorer .
All of them are solutions integrated into the operating system itself from the moment we install it from scratch and that are very useful to us on a day-to-day basis with Windows . In addition, little by little and based on updates, these gain in functionality and usefulness for users. Well, along these lines we are going to focus on one of the most important and veteran, the File Explorer.
This is an integrated function that has been with us since the beginning of Windows itself, although over time it has undergone changes, most of them for the better. It is true that there are many users who are currently requesting an important change for that element, something that Microsoft we assume is working on.
The File Explorer utility
As most of you probably already know first-hand, this is an extremely important element in the Redmond system . And thanks to this we have the possibility of interacting in the best way with the files and folders that we have stored in the disk drives. In fact, the Explorer could be considered one of the most important tools used by users on a daily basis.
There are many additional functionalities that we find here, something that will be very helpful in working with the aforementioned contents. For example, when we right-click on any of the items found in File Explorer, new options are shown. These appear on the screen through a contextual menu where we see quite useful options.
The problem in this regard is that some users suddenly encounter a problem when trying to access the options of the aforementioned context menu . To give us an idea, the failure comes when right-clicking on a content in the Explorer. This is totally blocked and prevents users from working with their files and folders in a conventional way.
Fix File Explorer crash
This is something more common than it might seem at first, so in these same lines we are going to try to solve it. So, if you are one of the users to whom something like that has happened, we are going to show you some possible solutions. That is, if your File Explorer suddenly crashes when using the context menu, try these solutions that we are going to propose.
First of all, you have to know that the contextual menu we are talking about is something very useful as well as used in day-to-day use with the PC . When making use of the File Explorer itself, it is more than frequent to use this contextual menu, since it offers us a good number of options in addition to the usual ones. In fact, some other programs installed on the computer are usually located on it. In this way we can access their functionality directly from that menu. This is something that, for example, happens with those solutions that perform direct tasks with Windows files or folders .
Avoid blocking from msconfig
It should also be borne in mind that adding so many additional options to this section can cause File Explorer to end up blocked. Thus, to solve the problem that we are describing here, the first thing we are going to do is do a clean restart of the system. Here what we try to avoid is the loading of additional elements, such as those mentioned. To achieve this we open a Windows execution window through the Win + R key combination and type the msconfig command.
This will lead us to a new system configuration window with a multitude of options. Well, in the present case, we go to the tab called General. Here we must make sure that we have the Selective Start option checked, where in turn we uncheck the Load startup items box.
After this, go to the Services tab where we mark the box called Hide all Microsoft services. We also click on the Disable all button. Once we have applied the changes and accept to close the window, the computer will restart. Once the Redmond system reboots, we will be able to test if File Explorer continues to crash when right-clicking the mouse . This is something that should solve the problem that we have mentioned.
Fix Explorer problem with ShellExView
Assuming that, after following the step above, the problem with File Explorer persists, we can try this other solution. And it is more than likely that, as we mentioned earlier, the failure is due to any of the options in the contextual menu that appears.
Therefore, another movement that we can carry out in this same sense, focuses on finding out what is the added function that is giving us problems. In order to achieve this, the first thing will be to reboot the system , but this time as usual, in normal mode. We can always deactivate each of the platforms or programs that we see that have been added to the contextual menu, one by one. But the truth is that this can be a somewhat cumbersome task. That is why we can use a third-party program to help us in all this.
Specifically, here we refer to the application called ShellExView, a free software that basically allows us to analyze the Shell extensions . These are the ones that have been added to the contextual menu and that come from third-party applications outside the system as such. Therefore we only have to download the program from this link and run it on Windows.
From there we will already have the possibility to see all those extensions to which we refer. In the same way ShellExView gives us the possibility to activate or deactivate them all at once or one by one. Thus, we can locate the ones that appear in the contextual menu of File Explorer and try to locate the problem.