Windows 10: Weirdness! Cannot Open ANY disk drives or change settings in Explorer!

All of a sudden, when I try to view any or all disk drives by double-clicking their icons on the desktop, NONE of them will open or display. What I always get instead is the error message: "Windows cannot access the specified device, path, or file. You may not have the appropriate permissions to access the item."

I get the same error when I try to run any *.msc or control panel. When I choose Settings instead of Control Panel, nothing happens at all. I get it even if I simply double-click "This Computer"!

I'm running 64-bit Windows 10 Pro 1803, and since there are no other users, my user account is an administrator account. Which means this almost certainly isn't actually a permission problem at all. Even if it was, since I cannot open any disk drive, I can't examine or change the owner/permissions.

When I looked up what might be causing this error, none of the alleged "explanations" fit what I'm seeing. Here's what Microsoft has to say about this error...
1: Check the permission of the file or folder: I can't! At least not in Explorer.

2: Check the file location: There can be no doubt as to where my disk drives are!

3: Make sure that the file has not been moved or deleted: I know with certainty that my disk drives are right where they've always been.

4: Recreate the shortcut to check for corruption: These are not shortcuts.

5: Unblock the file: My disk drives are not "blocked".

6: Check to see if your antivirus software is blocking the file: Due to an unrelated issue (some process was deleting a few Nirsoft.net executable files whenever I extracted then from a zip file - I have now solved that), I have uninstalled all anti-malware tools on the computer in question. In fact, the very reason I booted up was to re-install them, which I obviously cannot do when Explorer can't find any of my disk drives!

For the heck of it, I ran SFC, and it didn't find any problems.

After posting this, I'm going to run MBAM on the computer at issue, but I don't expect to find anything. So in the meantime, does anyone have any idea what could be going on or some advice about how to investigate the issue more deeply?

Thanks!

:)

 

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.

 

Change How Folders Open By Default (My laptop keeps using CMD)

Hi,

Sorry for the delayed response. I suggest you to set File Explorer as the Default program and check if that helps. To do this, refer the steps given below.

• Open Control Panel.
• Search for Default Programs.
• Go to Default Programs.
• Look for File Explorer towards the left pane and select it.
• Set this as default program and apply changes.
• Check if the issue persists.

Hope this helps.

 

Explorer Opens slow

I have tried the steps listed below. Method 2 and pinned it to the task bar. This helps it open faster but when it opens then the open window are grouped away from the icon on the task bar. I have to have two explorer folders pinned to the task bar to
have a fast opening Explorer and grouped windows together.



When I do "open file location" the original one shows it is on the desktop, but it is not there. The other one I created tracks back to the C:\ drive location as it was created. Just kind of weird that one is referencing the Desktop when it is not there.
Maybe hidden but still kind of odd.

How can I make it where I only have one Explorer that is both fast to open and the only one on the task bar?

Method 1: Rebuild your search index.

• Press Windows key + R, type control.exe srchadmin.dll, and click on OK.
• Click on the Advanced button.
• From the Advanced dialogue box, select Rebuild. Selecting Rebuild will begin the process of deleting, and then rebuilding your PC’s search index.

Note: While the steps to initiate the rebuilding process are simple, the actual process can take quite some time depending on how much data Windows has to index.

Method 2: Create a File Explorer shortcut on your desktop.

• On your Windows 10 desktop, right-click with the mouse.
• Select New > Shortcut.
• Type explorer.exe in the Location box.
• Click on Next button.
• Click on Finish button. You should now have a shortcut on your desktop.
• Right-click the new shortcut, and select Properties.
• Under Target line, change it to (note the space between C:\Windows\explorer.exe and /n):
  
  C:\Windows\explorer.exe /n
• Click the OK button. Now you can double-click it like your regular File Explorer app.

Method 3: Reset the File Explorer view to the default settings across all your folders.

• Launch File Explorer, click the File menu, and select Change folder and search options.
• Click on the View tab.
• Under Folder views, click on Reset Folders.
• Click the OK button.

Let us know if any of the suggestions helped.