Windows 10: windows explorer being a pain

okay guys, i've been trying to get this to work for some time and haven't had much luck so i decided i should ask for some help.

my windows explorer refuses to open after a while. i usually reboot my computer once a week or so but lately i've had to do it more often. after a day or so, windows explorer won't open new windows. the start menu works fine and in task manager it seems to be working, but opening it from the start menu, or from the quick bar doesn't do anything. sometimes it loads a spinning wheel for a second and then goes away. important note, opening folders from the desktop does work... not sure what that means. but after opening the folder and even keeping it open, i still can't open new windows. rebooting the computer always fixes the problem, but only temporarily and it is getting very annoying. has anyone else run into this or has a solution?

thanks in advance!

:)

 

Windows Explorer Panes are a Pain

Hi,

See if this article helps:

How to Enable and Use Panes in Windows 10

 

Windows Explorer Panes are a Pain

I just installed the 2nd Tuesday updates for March and was surprised to discover that Windows Explorer now has an additional column that evidently cannot be closed or turned off. It is realistically neither helpful or useful as far as I can determine. It
does seem to have the nasty side-effect of causing the OS to spend substantially more time re-scanning and re-indexing the files every time one opens a different folder.

The pane takes up a significant amount of real estate and cannot be sized down beyond a certain point. All of the functions that this pain pane embodies were already resident, but this excels in doing it in a substantially less useful or effective way.

While I am using this on a PC, on a smaller device the encroachment on the available pixels would be even more of a problem.

Perhaps there is something I am missing, but it seems like the user should be able to select view options for his or her own self. This seems to be a fix for something that was not really broken and in all reality a feature that muddled things up more than
anything else.

It needs to be updated most Ricky-tick so that the panes can be turned off.

 

For how long, approximately?

Is it happening in any explorer window ... say Quick Access, This PC, Desktop, Downloads, all the same? Or any particular window is not responding?

Does it behave the same in Safe Mode too?

And, is the issue with explorer only, or anything else like mouse cursor etc are also affected?

Please let us know.

 

It seems to be only explorer. Like I said, it won't open when accessing from the task bar or the start menu, however it will open if I open a folder that I placed on my desktop. From there, I can navigate to view other directories and it works properly. It doesn't seem to be an exact amount of time after a restart, usually a few days after. I will test it in Safe Mode, as I haven't yet tried that however when I was in Safe Mode recently, they opened soon after restart and hours after as well. Thanks for the response!

 

Your file explorer set to this PC or Quick access?

If it is Quick access, make it to This PC.

File Explorer - Open to 'This PC' or 'Quick access' - Windows 10 Forums
See how it goes. Let us know.

 

Seems to be working so far... I'll leave it unsolved for another couple days to ensure but I think this has done it!
Thanks!

 

Good going. As setting the explorer to "This PC" worked, that means prima facie there is some file in your folders which is failing to load or failing to generate the thumbnail. It might be something even difficult.

First, clear the thumbnail cache. Thumbnail Cache - Clear and Reset in Windows 10 - Windows 10 Forums
Then try to access your user folders individually. See which particular folder is causing the issue.

When the folder is detected, the job is almost done.

 

I cleared the thumbnail cache but as of today, it isn't working again. Accessing it from the start menu or the taskbar doesn't do anything but it still opens folders from the desktop and I can navigate both to quick access and to My PC from there. Also, when I double click on a folder now, it seems to open it in that window, and open two new windows with that same folder. I have no idea what is going on, but it seems to be getting worse.

 

Do a test please. Disable thumbnail preview for a reasonable time. See how it goes.

For the newly added issue, please go to Control Panel > File Explorer Options, and then Restore Defaults.





Let us know the resulting situation for both the cases.

 

I tried it but it kept acting up. I ended up reinstalling Windows 10 and it seems to be working well now.

On to another issue that hopefully you can advise on as I'm moving into my dorm soon and want a secure computer. My computer doesn't want to sleep on its own. The monitors turn off after a few minutes but it never sleeps by itself. I have turned it on in power settings after 10 minutes and I even found a setting in the developer section of the new control panel saying it would override sleep and never let it but I turned that off. Any ideas?

 

When needed I just use the Windows key + the L key to lock the screen, if password is used to log into Windows it will be needed to unlock.

[Formerly from Eagle Co.]

 

Plenty of discussion and ideas in threads here- suggest searching for 'Solved won't sleep':



Please try the ideas as best fits your situation; if still stuck, post back with what you've tried.