Windows 10: File Explorer sometimes closes overnight

Every few days or so, when I wake up my laptop in the morning, File Explorer will have closed. It's not a big deal to reopen it sometimes I've had a couple of instances of it open and had to navigate back to those folders, but I'd like to figure out why it does this. It's done it through several iterations of Windows 10 updates, including one two days ago. Currently on 10.0.19044.Thank you for any pointers.

:)

 

File explorer

Hi Mick,

I am sorry to know that the File Explorer is not working on the Taskbar.

I suggest you to right-click on it to unpin it from the task bar.

Then search for File Explorer in Search. Then right-click on it to Pin it to Taskbar.

If the issue persists, try the steps below.

• 
  Type CMD in Search. Right click on it to run as an administrator.
  
• 
  Type the following 4 commands at the Command prompt:
  

dism /online /cleanup-image /restorehealth

sfc /scannow

powershell

Get-AppXPackage -AllUsers |Where-Object {$_.InstallLocation -like "*SystemApps*"} | Foreach {Add-AppxPackage -DisableDevelopmentMode -Register "$($_.InstallLocation)\AppXManifest.xml"}

• 
  Close the CMD window.
  
• 
  Check to see if the issue is resolved. If not, restart the PC.
  

Hope this helps in resolving the issue. If the issue persists, do get back to us. We will be happy to assist you.

 

Close File Explorer Window

This code did list the Explorer windows, but I ran the "close" shell as Administrator with two Explorer windows open and it did not close either.

 

setting default view for Winodws Explorer Search Reasults

Thank you for the detailed response. To change the search result's view from content to list, we suggest following the steps below:

• Open the File Explorer and try to search for files.
• In the toolbar, open the View tab and click List
  to change the view.
• Once changed, close the File Explorer.
• Open the File Explorer again and try to search to see if the setting has been retained.

After performing the steps above, reply back to us so we can provide additional help.