Windows 10: explorer.exe and sihost.exe crashes at startup (happens randomly)

So basically the title should of been file explorer open randomly or on it's own, this is the main problem besides what is being shown in event viewer ?

 

Yeah that is the main problem. I mean, im terribly sorry if I confused you. I really want to solve this issue.

 

It's O.k., it is that i just need to understand it completely what is happening. File explorer opens randomly what shows when it does, usual screen when you open it manually ?

 

Oh alright.

Here's how it happened:
After windows loads, all i see is that file explorer opens randomly. No weirdness on the desktop nor taskbar. After the file explorer opens randomly at startup, i checked event viewer and reliability monitor and it logs that windows explorer (explorer.exe) and shell infrastructure host (sihost.exe) stopped working during that time. Also, when I open file explorer manually, both windows explorer and shell infrastructure host didnt crash. Plus, it just show usual screen when i open manually and when file explorer opens randomly.

 

Any way to screen capture the screen and post it here ? Any external devices hooked up, Drives, other USB devices ? Some hardware or software maybe causing this as did not happen in safe mode.

 

I'll try to capture it. However, i booted my pc and the sihost.exe stopped working, explorer.exe stopped working, and file explorer opens on its own or anything. This is starting to get very weird. Anyway, if it happens while I'm capturing it, I'll uploaded to my one drive. *Smile

As for the external devices, the only external device I have was my seagate external drive that is like almost 7 years old and it still works but I turned it off. Also, I do have a wacom bamboo fun tablet, a corsair k70 cherry mx red switches keyboard, and my logitech g700s mouse and wireless receiver.

If it is a hardware problem, then I'm worried. *Sad

 

So basically at startup it is still happening File Explorer opens right up ? Not sure i understood it correctly your first paragraph.
Unhook any external drives for now, Hard Drives, USB Flash or this tablet if hooked in anyway. Do not think it is a hradware problem, i think some software can be doing this or hooked device.

 

Oops! I mean I booted my pc yesterday and there's no sihost.exe and explorer crashes or file explorer opens on its own. I hate typing on this phone. Hopefully I dont want to jinx myself when I'll boot my PC in about an half an hour. ><

Anyway, I'll unhook my external hd and my tablet. Only mouse, wireless mouse receiver and keyboard should be hooked. Should I unhook the wireless mouse receiver too?

 

O.k. thanks. No can leave mouse and keyboard for now only. In past posts you also disabled 2 shell extensions maybe these were it. Again since did not happen in safe mode that it telling you it is some third party software,driver or shell extension causing this and most likely not hardware, but can be an external device to that is opening file explorer if have it plugged in at boot. Have to take a look at Auto Play in Control Panel to see how things are set.

 

For whatever it's worth: I saw exactly the same crashes on a clean install of Windows 10 Pro x64 here. I clean installed Version 1511 and it got directly updated to KB3116900. No other programs installed except Chrome, Dropbox and Office 365. No customizations yet.

When the crash happens (doesn't happen on every boot), Windows boots up with an Explorer window already open and the Explorer icon flashing in the taskbar. Then the Explorer seems to crash and restart and the icon flashing stops. After that everything seem to be functioning normally. The faulting Explorer module is also "twinui.appcore.dll" (isn't that Modern UI App related?) and sihost.exe crashes as well.

So whatever it is, it might not be related to your brownout, but to KB3116900. The update came 3 days ago so it might have been installed right before your crashes started. Oddly I don't see the same behavior on the two other machines I have. I think I'll sit back and wait. I have a feeling this might patch "itself" soon...

EDIT: Maybe you can look if the update KB3116900 really got installed before the crashes started. It's Event ID 19 from source "WindowsUpdateClient".

 

twinui.appcore.dll is a common Windows file which is responsible for loading and processing the settings of related application or Windows function. This file has been around in Windows 0S way before Modern App you maybe referring to starting in Windows 8.

KB3116900 https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/3116900 What is listed from here.
Cumulative update, has been few before this. Always cases were it happens to a choice few and not all who install a windows update, sometimes due to what is on those systems.

If i have it correct an Event 19 is a successful update code.

 

Yeah, definitely looks like it. I booted my PC not long after and the sihost.exe and explorer.exe crashes didn't happen again. I hope it kinda stays that way. I checked at Auto Play in the controll panel and everything is set to defaults except I switched PotPlayer to Windows Media Player for further troubleshooting.

I'm honestly glad you're having the same problem as mine. In fact, I did have KB3116900 update on my installed updates, but I don't see event ID 19 from source "WindowsUpdateClient" on my event viewer. If the explorer.exe and sihost.exe crashes again in the next boot, hopefully Microsoft will fix that in the next update. At least its not caused by a brownout at least.

Thanks for the additional information, jds63. You're also a great help too. Also, thank you, Carst3n for shining in on this situation. *Smile
I'll still keep an eye on those sihost.exe and explorer.exe crashes on the next boot. *Smile

 

Your Welcome BTW. You know when you say crashes you never had a BSOD or Windows box come on the screen telling you of these crashes, believe you saw them in the Event Viewer.

These paths that you listed are Microsoft, none are specifying another programs path as culprit

Faulting application path: C:\WINDOWS\Explorer.EXE
Faulting module path: C:\WINDOWS\System32\twinui.appcore.dll


Faulting application path: C:\WINDOWS\system32\sihost.exe
Faulting module path: C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\ntdll.dll

Not sure what Shell extension Classic Shell puts in your context menu or even Pot Player. Maybe the cause is these programs themselves.
I would check through Event viewer on all past errors to see if ever comes across a different Faulting Application path or module then these.

Using Pot Player is your choice if Windows Media Player or Movie & TV app are not playing or media or not to your liking. Similart idea with Classic Shell for those who do not like Start Menu although it has been improved since Win 10. Up to you, keep an eye on it and with also Event Viewer.

CCleaner might be good enough for now for disabling shell extensions. Sometimes the result of a conflicting shell extensions causes explorer.exe to crash resulting in a solid color screen for a few seconds then back to normal desktop and a Pop up saying explorer.exe stopped responding.
This was never your result even though one faulting path was explorer.exe, basically part of the same path as the other.
In my thoughts as said before something on the system i believe is triggering file explorer to open like when you connect an external device and autoplay is set to open it in file explorer, maybe a startup item.

 

same exact thing here id error 1000 start up with explorer page open..looks like another OS glitch, mine opened with 'This PC' open showing all the drives etc. thought I left the pc on all night til l looked at the Event Viewer.

 

I'm also glad I'm not the only one with this problem. Does the error 1000 shows the faulting module name of ntdll.dll on sihost.exe and twinui.appcore.dll on explorer.exe?

And I thought that I was free from all that but right now it just happened. Same sihost.exe and explorer.exe crash with file explorer open at start up. This time though when it happened, I was using Classic Shell to use the start menu. So I'd disabled Classic Shell in the start-up menu. Right now, I haven't had the crash yet but I'll let you know what happens.