Windows 10: Thumbnails disappear in File Explorer, then Explorer freezes

Hello,

I noticed yesterday that after using File Explorer for a short while, it stops showing any thumbnails, and only shows a plain white icon, not even the default icon for a file type. I tried all the usual methods for showing thumbnails, but to no avail.

Then, after a short while, it just stops working altogether. If I try to change folder, I get the message "Working on it..." and a green (lack of) progress bar in the address bar, but nothing happens. It just sits there and refuses to show me the contents of any folder, even "This PC".

The only way I have found to solve this is to restart the machine. As you can imagine, this isn't very practical!

Anyone any ideas? It's making it really hard to do any work. Thanks.

:)

 

File Explorer has gone crazy after last nights upgrade.

My only has icons instead of full descriptions. I can not get back to a point where I have tabs that actually say something. Please tell me how to get my view repaired? help... Help.... HELP!!!

 

Windows 10 File Explorer freezes when displaying folders containing MTS files (AVCHD video)

File explorer can't build thumbnails and freezes when it tries to display a folder containing MTS files from my Canon HG G10 Video camera. Help!

 

Hi,
1. Do you have any system restore points or disk images you can use to restore your PC to how it was on a date prior to this problem developing?
(We strongly and repeatedly recommend people use disk imaging.. it means you can often recover your PC to a working state without assistance, quickly and efficiently without stress).

2. As an interim measure, try using a different file manager.
Best Free File Manager | Gizmo's Freeware
The best freeware file manager: a comparative analysis - freewaregenius.com

3. If (1) is not available to you:
Does this also happen
a. in Safe Mode
b. if you create a new user (for test purposes)
c. If you do a clean boot?

 

Hee hee, I do, purely because you suggested it in reply to a previous question I had! I'm using Macrium Reflect (free edition) and take nightly backups.

Thanks for the suggestions. However, I realised after posting that the freeze was usually shortly followed by all sorts of other things going wrong, like the Start button not working, programs not starting or ending, etc. My only recourse was to reboot.

However, it was never a reproducible problem, it was something intermittent, so hard to diagnose. I updated Windows yesterday (all Office updates, theoretically not related), and switched off thumbnail views, and all has been fine since. If it keeps on this way, I'm going to switch back on thumbnails and see what happens.

As I said, the problem was intermittent, so I never got as far as trying any of these.

I'm going to see how it goes. If the problem comes back, I'l try some of these suggestions and see what happens.

Thanks for the reply.

 

Might be associated with what's being used to generate some of the thumbnails, I guess- i.e. which program.

That the start menu can show problems which are fixed on rebooting is new to me- usually that's a persistent type of fault.

 

Well, I switched thumbnails back on about an hour ago, and so far no problems. Will see what happens during the rest of the day.

Thanks again for the help.

 

This is what shows up in Edge when I plug in the second monitor.