Windows 10: explorer.exe crash/reload loop self-inflicted

Hi,


Some recent updates gave me a BSoD WDF Violation with amdsfhkmdf.sys being highlighted as the problem. I managed to fix that problem by renaming that file to amdsfhkmd.sys.old. The problem is, before I worked that out I tried to uninstall the recent updates. I had to use DSIM in command prompt as windows update was 'unavailable' in safe mode and the uninstall option in add/remove programs didn't work.


I managed to remove 3 out of 7 of the updates that were installed on the day the BsoD started using the DSIM method which lead to the explorer.exe crash/reload loop in safe mode and my main admin profile which I found out after I fixed the BSoD issue. I was able to use task manager to run a new task and set up a test user profile with admin privileges which works fine - no explorer crash problem there.


Because the problem is occurring in safe mode and a clean boot, I cannot use a process of elimination to figure out where the conflict is. I've run windows update in the test profile but it is not finding the 3 updates I removed.


Please help.


Other things I've tried:

- sfc

- chkdsk

- dsim restorehealth

- startup repair

- renaming bannerstore key solution from another thread


Updates deleted:

- microsoft-windows-userexperience-desktop-package~31bf3856ad364e35~amd64~~10.0.19041.48

- microsoft-windows-wordpad-fod-package~31bf3856ad364e35~amd64~~10.0.19041.48

- microsoft-windows-xps-xps-viewer-opt-package~31bf3856ad364e35~amd64~~10.0.19041.48

:)

 

Start Menu. Possibly a self inflicted problem. It is to small.


Pull your Menu larger with your Mouse (1) then drag a group up there (2)

 

Stuck in explorer crash loop

Hello!

Today, out of nowhere, I started having problems with explorer. When right-clicking on the desktop (or icons on it) explorer would crash and restart itself a few seconds later (icons disappear, taskbar disappears, etc...).

I looked for a solution online and many people suggested installing ShellExView and disabling everything non-Microsoft and then re-enabling them one by one to find the culprit. Actually, disabling every non-Microsoft entry made things much worse for me, as explorer would go into a crash loop (crash, restart, crash, and so on...). For some reason I though updating Windows would help me fix everything, but after applying updates and restarting I noticed nothing had changed and now I'm stuck in the loop right after login (I basically cannot do anything except launch stuff through the task manager).

I'm currently in safe mode, and everything works fine here, but I have no idea how to fix the problem. I tried reverting to the previous build, it failed (generic error, don't really remember it). I tried restoring to a previous restore point, it failed. Even resetting failed. I just guess I'll have to reinstall w10 from scratch, I just wanted to know if there was something else to try out before doing that.

Sorry for the long post! (or maybe it looks long in safe mode because of the low resolution *Biggrin )

 

Start Menu. Possibly a self inflicted problem. It is to small.


In the bottom shot, hit the hamburger button and you'll get the top screen.