Windows 10: Windows Explorer Constantly saying 'Working On It'

I ran into this issue last night and 24 hours later i'm at anyones mercy here.

I have four HDD's in my PC plus an SSD, everytime I open Windows Explorer/My PC in Windows 10, it just shows a green loading bar and never seems to stop. If I close the window and try to reopen Explorer I get the same issue but it says 'Working on it'.

I ran into this issue a few years ago and if memory serves me correct it was COM Surrogate causing the problem. I can't remember how I resolved it though.

I've done/checked the following:

• Checked my drives for errors. All 100% healthy, I have HD Sentinel installed too.
• Checked if there was any defragging going on, not that I could see.
• Ran the Windows Repair from Tweaking, didn't fix my problem
• Ran Avast and Malwarebytes to check for Malware/Viruses, nadda.
• Used CCleaner to clean the registry and remove thumbnail cache
• Updated Windows
• Rebuilt the index

On the last one for about 10 minutes it seemed to go back to normal, then back to showing the green bar.

If I stop COM Surrogate via Task Manager I can see my drives again, but as soon as I click on one I get the same issue, and it uses 10% of my CPU.

The only stable way for me to view my files is to turn off thumbnails in the Windows Explorer settings, which suggests something is very wrong with the way it's trying to generate thumbnails for images/videos/folders.

I don't know what to do next, any help or suggestions appreciated.

:)

 

Upgraded to windows10 and constantly get message that Windows Explorer has stopped working. How to fix?

Original Title - Windows explorer

Upgraded to windows10 and constantly get message that Windows Explorer has stopped working. How to fix. Thank you..

 

Upgraded to windows10 and constantly get message that Windows Explorer has stopped working. How to fix?

Windows Explorer (e.g. File Explorer, Desktop, Taskbar, etc.) is not Internet Explorer (IE) so you are posting in the wrong forum.

 

Hi BluesFanUK

What happens when you clean boot?

Perform a Clean Boot in Windows 10 to Troubleshoot Software Conflicts

Did you recently install any software or make system changes? Did Windows install updates?

While this may not work have you tried an in place repair / upgrade?

Repair Install Windows 10 with an In-place Upgrade

I would disconnect all data drives and ones that can't be disconnected should be backed up. (When I say disconnect I assume they are not raided, obviously raided drives can't just be disconnected.) Along that line, if you disconnect a majority of drives do things improve, thinking bad cable.

Do you have bootable media should something go wrong? I always recommend that you create an Image with a tool like Macrium Reflect before fixing OS's. Macrium is free, reliable and member recommended.

Backup and Restore with Macrium Reflect

Other members may have a more immediate fix.


Ken

 

Did a clean boot, still no luck. I added all my drives to the indexing list so it's going to take a while to do that. Once finished i'll test to see if it;s stable or my last alternative is to do a clean install.

It's completely random. I was downloading images off my phone last night when i suddenly noticed some of the images weren't loading, since then it's been a pain.

 

Might be related to the Quick Access cache.
More here:
Windows 10 File Explorer: - Super User

Folder template:
Fix Windows 10 "Working On It..." Folder Stuck Issue In File Explorer, Here's How | Redmond Pie


Solved example:
Solved File Explorer loads forever, many controls disabled - Windows 10 Forums

Basics:
Run chkdsk
Disconnect hdd's and retry

 

Thanks guys, unfortunately none of the above worked.

Clean boot didn't fixed it, all my folders have the general template already, I don't appear to have the TDM or Intel Rapid Storage Technologies in my list of Services and i've also run a memory check to see if that's the issue. Nothing come back.

I've just installed Icaros and the issue has gone, though i'm far from convinced. Just a very strange situation. Will report back if it takes another turn for the worse.

Appreciate the assistance. *Smile

 

Icaros - so that could suggest something related to native thumbnail generation as the problem.

As that offers lots of control as to what's being handled by Icaros, a process of elimination might point you to a particular file type, for example.

 

Not sure how to find out which one's causing the problem, clearly it's a video file as Icaros doesn't generate JPEG thumbs, though as far as I can see every video file is generating one perfectly fine now.

I can still see COM Surrogate running in the background but it's not crashing Explorer anymore thanks to Icaros.

 

There are some video file types there, but as to which one it is of any of those, you can, as per that view, add or remove any you like.

You could try the custom option and edit the entries there, and see if you can identify any that cause your symptom.