Windows 10: W10 File Explorer hangs on "working on it" + right click menu "open with" crashes explorer.exe

Hi. A month ago I built a new PC and this is my first time working with Windows 10. Since then, I'll occasionally have a problem pop up with the file explorer after a few days of uptime. These are the problems that come up when things start glitching: 1. Folders will take long to load and/or it'll hang on "working on it." For example, I click "This PC" and it will hang on that message. 2. If I hover over the "open with" option while right clicking any file, it will cause explorer.exe to stop responding and restart. 3. Thumbnails/Icons have trouble loadingBelow are some pictures of the problem

:)

 

File Explorer hangs on "working on it" & Open As menu crashes

OS: Windows 10 Home - Version 21H2 (OS Build 19044.1466)
CPU: Ryzen 5 5600X
RAM: Corsair Vengeance 32GB
Storage: SAMSUNG 970 EVO Plus SSD 1TB

Hello, I built a new PC a month ago and this is my first time using Windows 10 so I don't know much about the OS and how to optimize it. I've noticed that after some time (could be a day to even 5 days uptime), my explorer will start acting weird and the issue seems to only be fixable with a system reboot.

When this occurs, the following problems & strange observations appear:

• "This PC" will get stuck on "working on it" and show nothing in the main body and the side bar will be empty (opening a 2nd explorer window and going to This PC on that window will work and show correctly, tho)
• Opening any folder and leaving the window idle for 1-2 seconds will trigger that green loading bar at the top to start growing for no reason and it'll hang at 99% full. <-- The folder is already loaded and this never happens except when explorer is exhibiting this bug.
• Hovering over the "open as" option in the right click menu causes explorer.exe to permanently hang and will require a process restart.

Things I've tried to do while the problem happens:

• Restarted explorer.exe - The bug still persists
• Changed File Explorer options - See here: https://i.imgur.com/HzBz1mb.png
• Clear File Explorer History + restarted explorer process - The bug still persists
• Cleared quick access cache - The bug still persists
• Changed the option "open file explorer" to "This PC" - The bug still persists (so quick access isn't the culprit in my case?)
• Disabled Windows Explorer from trying to read .WAV file tags with regedit (but it still does this anyway? doesn't seem to be the culprit though) - https://i.imgur.com/J4c44AY.png

Things I haven't tested yet:

• Uninstalled Onedrive (Never used this before, but I just uninstalled it after I rebooted)
• Rebuild search index
• Disable indexing

Not sure what else to add, but if you want more info feel free to ask.

Thanks!

 

'Open in new window' right-click menu option for File Explorer


I just submitted this suggestion on Windows Uservoice:

The idea: the right-click menu for folders in File Explorer has an option called 'Open in new window', which opens that folder in a new File Explorer window. Very useful for copying and moving things, and opening destination folders without accessing the start menu a second time.

right-click menu option for File Explorer – Feature Suggestions for Windows

 

'Open in new window' right-click menu option for File Explorer

Is this a weird joke/troll?

That feature has been in Explorer since at least Windows 7...