Is there a coherent way to investigate File Explorer crashes?

I have installed Win11 24H2 from scratch (i.e., not upgrading a previous version of Windows). I find File Explorer is crashing. This tends to happen when I right-click on something in File Explorer. It seems mostly to happen when I right-click on something in the navigation pane, but I just had a crash when I right-clicked on empty space in the Details pane.

Google searches lead to lists of things to try. Prior experience teaches that these laundry lists of possible solutions can waste a lot of time. Experience with this particular problem supports that impression.

It seems it might make more sense to know where to look, in various logs, to figure out what happened, in the moments after some such crash. Or to have a tool that can parse such logs in lay terms.

The question is, is there a tool or method that I can use to approach Explorer crashes systematically, instead of trying random "solutions" that may actually have nothing to do with the problem.

For what it's worth when I first installed 24H2 on one of my machines from a 23H2 beta build File Explorer crashed non stop anytime I right clicked any file or folder. After browsing the internet for a solution I finally did find a command line fix that took care of my problem and allowed me to stay on 24H2 vs restoring 23H2. I got the error message only when opening explorer in safe mode and right clicking anything which crashed:

explorer.exe - System Error - Exception Processing Message 0xc0000005 - Unexpected parameters in Safe Mode

Step 1: Open the start menu and search for Windows Powershell in Windows 11 or Powershell in Windows 10. Step 2: Then right-click Windows PowerShell, and choose Run as administrator. Step 3: In the Powershell window, type the command Set-ExecutionPolicy Unrestricted and then agree with Yes Step 4: In the PowerShell window, type the command Get-AppXPackage -AllUsers | Foreach {Add-AppxPackage -DisableDevelopmentMode -Register "$($_.InstallLocation)\AppXManifest.xml"} and hit enter.

Download ShellExView and disable shell extension to find out if any one of them causing the problem.

Further exploration reminds me of , which provides this:



Double-clicking on (for example) the first listed Windows Explorer instance, I see further information, as follows:



Unfortunately, I lack the expertise to interpret what that error may suggest. The details are identical for the next several listed Explorer crashes, except that the Additional Information items differ.

Right-click crashes in Explorer are caused by shell extensions. Therefore, @FreeBooter 's recommendation to use ShellExView to find the culprit sounds like a good idea. If you have any Adobe products, I would start by disabling their shell extensions. I think BIB.dll_unloaded is an Adobe file.

We seem to have something of a procedure in development: (1) Run perfmon /rel. (2) Examine its reports on Windows Explorer critical events. (3) Identify the relevant fault module. (4) Search online for references to that module.

In this case, BIB.dll_unloaded does indeed seem to be an Adobe file. On my computer, Everything indicates that all occurrences of BIB.dll are in C:\Program Files\Adobe or C:\Program Files (x86)\Adobe.

Various sources suggest that BIB.dll comes from Adobe Creative Suite 4 (CS4). One source seems to find it also in Adobe 5 and/or in Adobe Reader 6. Such sources (e.g., Adobe Community, Microsoft Community) suggest a fix that involves deleting at least the first two of the following three registry entries:

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\AllFilesystemObjects\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers\{C95FFEAE-A32E-4122-A5C4-49B5BFB69795}
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\Background\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers\{C95FFEAE-A32E-4122-A5C4-49B5BFB69795}
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Drive\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers\{C95FFEAE-A32E-4122-A5C4-49B5BFB69795}

I've tried those, but have not yet rebooted. They do seem to work for others. Here's hoping.

Elsewhere, I discuss the coincidence in which Adobe software ceased to function when I upgraded from Win7 to Win10. Similarly, in this case, I have just upgraded to Win11. Adobe evidently did not support existing users by offering a software update that would permit continued use of CS4 - and, for that matter, of Premiere Elements 2020, which also seems to be malfunctioning in Win11.

My experience, at least, suggests that Adobe seizes upon Windows upgrades as opportunities to push users into upgrading their Adobe software as well. Which is not a bad idea, in theory. But of course Adobe is aware that Creative Cloud, replacing Creative Suite, costs $264/year even if the only component you use is, say, Photoshop. It's $660/year if you want the full suite. That's quite an incentive, for Adobe, to undermine previous versions of the software. Also quite an incentive, for me, to seek tomorrow's software elsewhere.

Thank you, in any event, for helping me arrive at this understanding of the situation.