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General discussion

Windows 7: "Windows Explorer Stopped Working"

Jun 12, 2010 12:19AM PDT

Last month I purchased a Lenovo ThinkPad T410 laptop to replace my Dell desktop. I also purchased a Kensington Universal Docking station to connect my keyboard and mouse. This way I?d have the touch and feel of a desktop, and can easily unplug and take the laptop on the road without having to copy and move the files I need to the ?road machine?.

While working using the docking station, I often copy a file to place it or a shortcut to the desktop. Half the time, I get a message ?Windows Explorer has stopped working?, then a few moments later I get a message ? Do you want to send more information about the problem?? , and then I get ?Windows Explorer is restarting? . After it restarts I have no problem pasting the file or shortcut to the desktop. Any hints as to what?s going on?

Discussion is locked

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This is not uncommon when
Jun 12, 2010 1:47AM PDT

The links are to video, audio, or picture files. It's not uncommon with some antivirus suites and when malware is on the machine.

But given only this much story to work with all I can do is confirm that this happens on every version of Windows since about 3.0.
Bob

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I wish it were that simple, but
Jun 12, 2010 2:33AM PDT

Thanks Bob. I'm running Norton Security Suite, and it's up-to-date. As far as I can tell I'm virus free.

The problem occurs on all types of files, including documents, spreadsheets, text files, folders,...

I just ran a check. I right clicked on a text file that's on the desktop. Then right clicked again on a empty space, and it would have allowed me to paste. I then hit <esc> and right clicked again, this time it failed.

I'm running Windows Ultimate and I keep it current with updates. When the problem occurs the only running is normall Outlook (2007 version), but sometimes there's no application software running.

David

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And "Windows Activators" in use?
Jun 12, 2010 4:10AM PDT

I don't know why but this week had too many machines show up with "Windows Activators." I think MSFT issued a new patch for that.

Norton is often the cause of this one, not the cure. But I'm sure you've heard/read that by now.
Bob