Windows 10: no file on computer will open or launch from Windows 10 file explorer

i7 7700k, 32gb ram, intel m.2 sata , rx580, all bios, firmware and drivers fully updated.

Windows 10 Pro 1803 fully updated

All apps fully updated

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I will start by saying that I have tried everything I can think of short of giving up and reinstalling the OS to fix the issue at hand. I am a 32 year IT professional and have never yet run into a problem I could not fix till now.

Windows file explorer has an issue with not opening any, and I mean any type of file. Document or executable, won't open. You can use the contextual menu even and choose open it will not work. I am completely malware clean. I have done all the normal permission resets, executable fixes from mallware, reset explorer to defaults. My last effort was to even let windows repair do all it's registry fixes. Nothing is fixing this issue.

So I simply click on any folder and it opens just fine. I double click any file and nothing happens and the folder closes. That is it. Can do this over and over on any folder on the computer. I can create new user accounts and it does the same thing. I can run from safe mode and it does the same thing.

Nothing other than explorer seems to be affected, the machine runs great. I can use a third party file manager like multi commander and launch and open any file no problem. But the built in file explorer won't work right. I have done no tweaks to change explorer ever, and have done the reset to defaults in explorer.

if have checked the disk and it is fine. I have run sfc and it is fine.

I have uninstalled all AV and security apps to see if this fixes things and no it does not.

:)

 

Cannot launch File Explorer from taskbar in Windows 10

Hi Juzzy,

Thank you for posting your query in Microsoft Community.

I understand your concern and will assist you to resolve this issue.

I suggest you to follow the steps below and check if it helps.

• First unpin the File Explorer from the task bar.
• Press Windows + E.
• And right click on File Explorer in the taskbar.
• And Pin the File Explorer to Taskbar and Check if it helps.

Hope this helps. If the issue remains unresolved, please get back to us and we would be happy to help.

 

File Explorer not opening via pinned Taskbar icon on Windows 10

Hi Leon,



Thank you for posting on Microsoft Community. I understand the inconvenience you faced. I apologies for delay in reply. I will certainly help you with this.

I suggest you to unpin the File explorer from the task bar and re-pin the File Explorer and check If issue is resolved. If issue persist, I suggest you to follow the below given steps and check if it helps:



I suggest you to run System file checker. System File checker (SFC) scan is done to check if there are any corrupted system files that could be causing this issue. Kindly follow the below given steps:

• Press Windows key + X, select
  Command prompt (Admin) to bring up elevated Command prompt.
• In Command prompt type sfc/scannow and press enter.
• Restart the computer.

If no corrupted system files were found in the previous state, then I suggest you to try the following steps:

• Open command prompt by pressing Windows key + X and selecting “Command prompt admin”.
• In command prompt, type the following commands and press Enter after each command:

DISM.exe /Online /Cleanup-image /Scanhealth

DISM.exe /Online /Cleanup-image /Restorehealth

• Close the command prompt and restart the PC and check if it works.

Hope this information helps. Please post back with the results, we will be glad to assist you further.

Thank you.