Severe Explorer crash

Very annoying!

from WinCustomize Forums

* Mods- Please feel free to move this thread to the appropriate sub-forum once the culprit software is decided on. *

I have an infuriating problem and have had it for a while only now it is a lot worse. I am assuming the problem lies with WindowBlinds but that's a guess. I'm also running Fences (which is slow and sends my Explorer to 100% CPU if I move the mouse pointer over my desktop icons), WindowFX (sluggish but reliable, my computer is old) and other Stardock software (but I can't see them causing problems).

Without warning, but often when resuming from having locked my computer, Explorer will crash. This is quite common with Windows 10 and what normally happens with or without WindowBlinds is that Explorer will reload albeit with fewer icons in the Notification Area of the Taskbar; inconvenient but the computer is still usable. What is happening now however is that I am left with a Taskbar with nothing on it except the Start Button and Find button, the clock and an empty Notification Area except for WindowBlinds' icon in it hence why I'm pinning the blame on it. The keyboard shortcut to go to the desktop stops working although I can still task-switch but the computer becomes more or less unusable and I am forced to restart. As I say, this might have happened once every few days after hibernating and resuming but now it's happened three times today so the problem is gradually getting worse!

I tend to prefer using older themes and I hear that they're not great with Windows 10 but I actually have very few problems with skinning when using them. Granted, some themes are terrible on this modern OS but the better ones usually have good compatibility which is fantastic and it's fun to go back 10, 15 or even more years ago; back to my youth. Sometimes, some text will be lost in the same colour as the window's background and often Firefox has a strange problem where there's something overlapping the top right corner of the window for some reason so none of the buttons there can be clicked. I can live with these problems; I can have Firefox not be skinned etc.. There is one other problem (the crash aside) that is frustrating and might be linked to the crash. When I click the button to show hidden Notification Area icons the computer will freeze up, often the Taskbar will disappear and if I'm lucky, the menu will appear in the top left of the screen. Then the taskbar will reappear. If I'm really lucky it'll appear normally but this is rare. Sometimes this behaviour will cause the crash as explained above but sometimes I can't avoid clicking that button. Why is this happening? If (mostly) everything else works absolutely fine? Is it linked to this crash? I also have noticed that I often can no longer hide the Taskbar in settings but I don't want to do that anyway because I want to see the skin!

Yes, more modern skins don't seem to have this problem and might not cause the crash but I have little interest in them and besides, WindowBlinds' heyday was years ago when skinning and computer gadgets were popular (and we didn't have bloody mobile phones). The achievements of skinners back in the day is mind-blowing (and usually their efforts were provided for free!!), especially when considering the ages of these young creators. Are they doomed to stay in the past? Like I say, some old skins are fine while others are problematic, even if all elements of skinning are included in the skin.

If anyone can shed any light on this (and why it's gradually getting worse and worse!) I'd really appreciate it because at this rate I might have to give up on skinning and finally grow up. Please don't make me do that...

6,406 views 5 replies
Reply #1 from WinCustomize Forums Top

Follow up: I noticed when I rebooted that before WindowBlinds loaded, the same looking Taskbar as after the crash appeared. I then thought to unload WB... and Explorer crashed again! I've now loaded the default Windows theme and rebooted for the 94th time today. Without WB I can hide the taskbar and the Notification Area button seems to work as it should. Now I've loaded WB again so we'll see how things go. It's almost as if WB adds to the problem on each boot.

Some of the other Stardock software I'm using that I didn't mention before that might be relevant is Start10 and Multiplicity if that helps.

Reply #2 from WinCustomize Forums Top

I've also just realised this isn't StarDock's forums... Ahem. Well, if nobody knows I'll post there too I guess. I assume people use both?

Galactic Civilizations III
Reply #3 from WinCustomize Forums Top

Quoting MagikGimp, reply 2

I've also just realised this isn't StarDock's forums... Ahem. Well, if nobody knows I'll post there too I guess. I assume people use both?
End of MagikGimp's quote

Stardock's forums are cross-linked to various other sites as relevant...so there's no neeed to post twice.

You mention your computer is old.   In such a case you can't rule out hardware failure/failing...;)

Reply #4 from Stardock Forums Top

Hello,
Sorry to hear you are having issues. Need more information.

1) Windows 10 version, please use Winver.exe for full version numbers.

2) Windowblinds version.

3) List down Skin themes that you having issues with. And themes that you have no issue at all.

4) Please run below guide to ensure you system is okay.

Please try the following:

-For Win8/10 Users: Open the Start Screen, and type 'cmd'. Right-click on the search result and select 'Run as administrator' from below.

-For 7 Users: click Start, in the start search field type 'cmd'. Right-click on the search result and select 'Run as administrator'.

-Type: sfc /scannow

-Wait for the scan to complete (this can take several minutes)

Some help on how this looks should you need it:

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/929833/use-the-system-file-checker-tool-to-repair-missing-or-corrupted-system

If the SFC finds errors, but cannot fix them, please also run the following command in the same command prompt window:

dism.exe /online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth

Some help on how this looks should you need it:

https://www.windowscentral.com/how-use-dism-command-line-utility-repair-windows-10-image

The above command should assist with replacing any damaged or problematic system files. Please note, however, since it may require restoring certain files, this process can take some time and you will need to be patient until it has completed.

 

Thanks

Basj,
Stardock Community Assistant.

Reply #5 from WinCustomize Forums Top

Hi guys, thanks for your replies and sorry for my late one. To be honest I was putting off telling you that I really wasn't going to follow your advice but hopefully you won't take offence to me saying that so please allow me to explain!

My computer may be old but she's an old faithful. I like to think for the most part I know what I'm doing and I don't believe my Windows installation is seriously damaged. I'm fully aware of Microsoft's tools but they run the risk of doing damage simply by rolling back updates and such and then I have to sit through hours of getting back to where I was after the hours the tools took to do their work. Anyway, I seem to have fixed the problem myself; fingers crossed.

Unloading Windowblinds and quitting the config utility, followed by relaunching it and switching to Windows' default theme and rebooting the machine did the job. Going back to the theme I was using (modified Not of this Earth by I.R. Brainiac) hasn't caused the problems to occur again so far. Now, I had performed this 'fix' before with a different skin but perhaps that one is just more finicky? Not of this Earth is a really nice skin IMHO and compatibility with Windows 10 is around 90% with only some text not being visible.

For the record, I'm on the main updates branch of Windows and Windowblinds. I'll be in touch if things go wrong again. Cheers.