Win Explorer Hangs

Win XP pro all updates.
Does not do this at every boot, just when I am in a hurry. lol.

Click shortcut Icon from desktop at boot Win Explorer hangs.

I click two more times and I get no more showing on desktop.

process Explorer show three trying to run.

I kill the first one and the other two show up open on the desktop.

What's up with that ?

I have now dragged the explorer.exe from system to the desktop (a copy).
and will try that at next boot.

Fremish wrote:

Win XP pro all updates.
Does not do this at every boot, just when I am in a hurry. lol.

Click shortcut Icon from desktop at boot Win Explorer hangs.

I click two more times and I get no more showing on desktop.

process Explorer show three trying to run.

I kill the first one and the other two show up open on the desktop.

What's up with that ?

I have now dragged the explorer.exe from system to the desktop (a copy).
and will try that at next boot.

Does "boot" mean you did a cold boot (no power and no save state), or
you powered up using hibernate (which restores the saved state before
the prior shutdown) or resuming from a low-power mode (Standby) or you
are just logging out and back in (so Windows remains running between
logoff and logon)?

Back in Windows XP, the OS had problems shutting down because some
processes would not release memory. Microsoft's solution was to add
their User Profile Hive Cleanup utility, a service that ran on shutdown.
Microsoft doesn't provide UHCP anymore at their web site. At:

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/...ndows-server-2

the download link to UHCP (step 1) fails because Microsoft removed most
of their web pages dealing with that discontinued OS. Looks like you
can still get it at:

https://www.majorgeeks.com/files/det...p_service.html

You cannot use their "author's site" download link because that points
back to a Microsoft web page that Microsoft removed.

Are you waiting until Windows is actually ready before loading Windows
Explorer? Just because the desktop appears does not mean Windows is
ready for user mode programs to load. explorer.exe is both the Windows
Explorer file manager and also the desktop manager; that is,
explorer.exe (aka Windows Explorer) is also handling the display of the
desktop.

If you load Task Manager and kill all instances of explorer.exe (also
makes the desktop disappear) and use the File - New task menu to run
explorer.exe, does that instance load immediately (you see the desktop
reappear)?

Did you try loading Windows in its safe mode to check if explorer.exe
loads okay the first time you run it after seeing the desktop settles?

What add-ons to Windows have you installed? Many install as shell
extensions which can affect the load of explorer.exe. A shell extension
can add a handler to effect behavior or action on an object, like
extending the list of actions on a file, folder, or filetype. Some will
add context menu entries (what you see when you right-click on an object
in Windows Explorer). Those that add context menu entries don't get the
cascading menuing correct: some add them at the root level of the
context menu while some chain them into a cascading menu in the context
menu.

You can use Nirsoft's ShellExView to see what shell extensions were
installed. Any program you install that has an option (or doesn't have
an option but just forces the behavior) to add context menu entries or
features onto Windows Explorer. In fact, some shell extensions can
corrupt Windows Explorer so bad that Windows Explorer crashes (which
could also mean you can't even get to it loading the desktop).
Sometimes uninstalling those shell extensions results in a dirty
uninstall: they leave behind registry entries that are still defining
shell extensions but explorer.exe cannot find them per the registry
definition or a remnant file by itself is not sufficient for the shell
extension so it crashes and takes explorer.exe with it. This latter
case is one of the few times a registry cleaner can help by deleting
orphaned or corrupted registry entries pointing to non-existing or
no-longer-existing shell extension handlers.

Thanks for ideas to try.