Back on the 9th I installed the Windows 8.1 Update 1 for my laptop (HP Envy m6-1206TX), which - to the best of my understanding - has broken my computer. Neither my computer nor WhoCrashed seems to think there's a problem, so I don't have anything better than a description for this.
After the initial mandatory restart and every restart since then, I am able to log in normally. However, within a few minutes my taskbar and desktop will both freeze and then disappear. Any windows that are open will cycle between which is the active window making them almost but not entirely unusable, and the screen will flash. After a couple of minutes of this, the flashing will increase in speed and the computer will rapidly cycle between
I got my new comp yesterday and it was working fine but during critical updates the power cord came unplugged and since then my computer won't work. When I press the power button it turns on for a second or two, then immediately turns off, then just continues doing this in an endless loop restart cycle. I cannot access bios and my monitor does not turn on during the few seconds that the computer has power. My power cord does not work in my current old desktop and the power cord from my old desktop does not work in my new pc..
I have tried inserting the windows 8 disc, but computer doesn't stay on long enough to do anything. I've also pressed f2, f8, f10, f12 all of those and nothing works or causes the computer to respond.
I had a problem where I was running UEFI with secure boot disabled and dual booting with Linux Mint which is UEFI compliant. Mint had installed Grub, Mint's boot manager but I don't like Grub so i installed rEFInd. Unlike Grub rEFInd has support for UEFI and should have worked better as a boot manager. But it gave me problems too. So I had Grub and rEFInd both installed. I could boot to both Mint and Windows but the boot managers, both Grub or rEFInd, would not show at startup like they are supposed to.
I had to boot the PC, then hit Escape getting into my options menu built into the system, hit F9 to get a list of boot options where i could then choose to boot from hard drive, cd rom, usb etc. rEFInd was in this list. Only after choosing rEFInd from here, was I able to open rEFInd and choose Windows or Mint. This is way too many steps to boot into an OS, so i thought i'd try to use the system repair disk to repair my master boot record or the EFI data that the system uses at boot under UEFI. I forgot that i had to run some additional commands under command prompt and just ran automatic repair from Advanced instead.
At this time Windows had no trouble working at all with secure boot enabled if I really needed windows to use secure boot.
It said it found but could not fix the errors. Suddenly, Windows would not boot even with secure boot enabled. I reran the tool 3 times and it didn't work so i wiped the drive and reinstalled Windows from a clean state. I really did not have errors on the system to begin with accept that the system was trying to access my boot managers in an odd manner.. although i could get everything to work.
The automatic repair option should not have made things worse, even breaking my secure boot but it did.
My point of this is to show that the repair disk tools and how they play with the EFI boot tools is buggy and it can break your system even if there is nothing wrong with Windows and it's ability to boot under secure boot. Don't trust the Repair Disk tool folks. Don't trust UEFI. Don't trust Secure Boot. Be smart. Install a clean system under Legacy Bios mode with UEFI and secure boot disabled.
Yesterday, while using File Explorer a problem occurred. I had a CD open showing files on the CD and I had a folder open (that is on my desktop) and was copying files from the CD to the desktop folder. I am not sure what I may have done, but after closing the File Explorer, it is no longer working correctly. When I left click on the folder icon on the taskbar on my desktop nothing is shown on my desktop. The taskbar icon shows that File Explorer is open and if I hover my cursor over it, a 'mini' is shown (just above the taskbar) of what is open, but will not expand to view on the desktop, just shows the 'open' page above the taskbar. If I open WORD or some other program and try to 'saveas' the files are shown and I can save the document. I down loaded a "file manager" from the Microsoft Store so I can get at and work with files, but I am not able to use the Win 8 File Explorer. I have done a normal shutdown and restart, but still have the problem. I tried to do a system restore, but the restore would not complete. (suggested I turn off antivirus).
I upgraded to w 8.1 with firefox as my default browser. When I opened the "e" shortcut google web page opened. I tried to download IE 11 but a message said it was already running. open IE ?
I have a 2TB Western Digital My Book Essentials, it's filled with tons of old photos, movies, docs, games, and I'm scared to think of what else. The SATA to USB connector broke on it, so I took the drive apart and put it inside my computer. I opened up device manager because it wasn't showing up automatically and the 2TB is showing up as unallocated, I'm freaking out now because I'm scared the data was somehow deleted.What do I do?
edit: I realize also this isn't directly related to Windows 8 (besides the fact it's the OS I'm on), but I don't know where else to post it. I'd also like to say that I had a really deep feeling the drive was going to break continually for about two weeks before it happened, so if you have a similar feeling about something, don't ignore it!
Right now, if I rename a file in windows explorer, or right click->create new folder (or new file), or do a bunch of other things, I don't see the result of the action (i.e., the file's name stays the same, or the new folder/file doesn't appear) until I click away to another folder, and then back to the one I did the action in.
Why is this happening, and how can I fix it? I haven't explicitly changed anything recently, though maybe an update broke something.
I have been having a bit of a problem with Explorer in Windows 8. Occasionally the explorer just locks up. Typically when I right click on an item, it will freeze. At which point I usually use the task manager to kill Explorer and start it up again. However, until I restart my machine, I am unable to change the listing view (details, medium icons, etc) because the buttons are greyed out, nor am I able to right click on the item without explorer locking again. Additionally, icons don't appear to render afterwards either.
I recently built a PC after years of owning Macs. In general it has gone very smoothly, but I'm now running into an issue where Windows Explorer will freeze. This will go on for minutes at a time, and (generally) then resume functionality after what appears to be it restarting itself.
During this time I cannot get to the task manager, but other apps not using Windows Explorer work just fine.
Here's the details:
Source Windows Explorer
Summary Stopped responding and was closed
Date 8/8/2014 12:40 PM
Status Report sent
Description A problem caused this program to stop interacting with Windows. Faulting Application Path:C:Windowsexplorer.exe
[Code] .....
It has happened multiple times within the past couple days and I am relying on this machine for work.
my windows explorer seems to be messed up somehow (at least I think that's not normal). I am not sure what is going on, isn't everything supposed to be under "This PC"? Classic shell doesn't fix it either.
I have a problem that started yesterday. Every 30 seconds Windows Explorer (not the browser) crashes, then restarts. I run Xmarks within FireFox, I thought this was the problem because Xmarks as of yesterday asks me every 40 seconds if I want to sync my bookmarks, if I choose cancel, Windows Explorer will crash then restart.
When Firefox is closed, Explorer continues to crash and restart, almost every 30-35 seconds. I have Windows 8.1 up to date, with all the latest updates, FireFox is up to date. As of writting this post, Windows Explorer has crashed and restarted (5) times.
Copy menu works ok, but unable to paste because it throws me back briefly to the Metro window. This behavior doesn't work consistently but I have to log out and back in in order to correct it. Even reboot doesn't work.
Note: this is the File Explorer, not the internet browser.
"To change the way Windows Explorer opens (copy and paste)
one of the examples below to the target portion of a shortcut and name it Windows Explorer.
Examples:
Open Windows Explorer with My Computer as the root with all drives visible and "My Computer" selected. C:WINDOWSEXPLORER.EXE /e,/n,::{20D04FE0-3AEA-1069-A2D8-08002B30309D}"
(other examples followed)
In Windows 8.1 the "target" box is grayed out. File Explorer always starts with the THIS PC folder highlighted... and I would like to change that. How?
When I click on file explorer, sometimes there are no icons, so then I close the windows for a bit. Reopen it, same problem. So I close it and reopen it a bit later, and it's fixed. When the problem is happening, clicking on any folder will bring me to basically the same blank screen, with green loading bar as you see below. I ran an anti-malware and anti-virus check, and that didn't uncover anything.
I am trying to get embedded album art to show in W.Explorer for m4a Mpeg4 files. I am not talking about the art on the folder but the art in the files itself. Mp3 shows up no problem but m4a is being difficult.
Any easy solution aside from using a shell extension.
The only possible solution I found in another thread and will post it here: "I fixed the problem as it was mainly due to corrupted registry for some strange reason.i imported the .mp3 dile extension key from registry and opened it using notepad and replaced all .mp3 extension with .m4a and saved it as .m4a.reg and run it and had to do a system restart after that thumbnails again started showing up in windows explorer as normal.such as in the below screenshot"
My question: I don't have a corrupted registry as I just did a fresh install only a week ago. So, is it possible for me to edit the registry as this person suggests? how would I go about doing so exactly? I have no experience messing with registry files .
My Windows 8 runs on VirtualBox which in turn is hosted on Ubuntu. In Ubuntu I have a folder called Documents, specifically it is at homeuserNameDocuments. In Windows I have a folder called Documents, specifically it is at C:UsersuserNameDocuments. I can see this from Windows Explorer when I right click "My Documents" and then the tab "Location". In the "Location" tab there is the path C:UsersuserNameDocuments.
This is risky since Windows Explorer identifies the folder as "My Documents" when in actual fact it is "Documents" as visible in the "Location" tab.
I need to eliminate user errors caused by belief that the folder name is "My Documents".
At this point an example of such an error may be appropriate, but I think it's so obvious that an example is a painfully boring distraction. One user error might be that if the user copies "My Documents" to E: (which points to homeuserName in Ubuntu) he would expect that "homeuserNameMy Documents" will be created parallel to "homeuserNameDocuments". In fact, what will happen is that the folder from Windows is actually named "Documents", contrary to the appearance in Windows Explorer, and the contents there will become intermingled with the documents that were already present in homeuserNameDocuments. This is a disaster. In general identifying things non-uniquely creates risk. In general we need one-to-one identfiers to minimize error recovery effort.
I need a permanent solution that is not manual. That is, I do not want to manually remove the prefix "My ". I did this before but somehow, perhaps in the upgrade from Windows 7 to Windows 8, the prefix reappeared.
I'm running Windows 8 and Office 2010. I can't open Excel, Publisher or Powerpoint documents from Windows Explorer or from emails attachments. I can run Word without problem from Windows Explorer.
The files run fine from within the programmes.
An Office window comes up and tells me that the product required is not loaded on this machine. Graphics are attached.
It has a button beside the label saying "I already purchased Office 2010". I click on this button and it asks me to run the installation programme. The following message comes up, "You cannot install the 32 bit version of Office 2010 because you have The 64 bit version installed......"
I just got a Dell Inspiron with Windows8 to replace my old XP system. Got files and software loaded, everything working. I code indicators and robots for forex trading and use the built-in editor (Meta-Editor) and it is working fine. I can call up the indicators and robots through the editor and re-edit or run them--no problem.
Then I went over to the File Explorer to move some of the indicator files around and -- weird! They are not there. All the previous files I loaded in earlier are there but since about the 1st of December, none of the files are there.
The folders and subfolders all work correctly in Editor but none of the newer ones are showing up on Explorer--I can build new folders in Explorer and they show up in Editor but whatever i build in Editor does not show up in Explorer--why could that be happening?
how to integrate skydrive into my win explorer. I would like to simply be able to drag a file from say excel or word an drop it into a skydrive folder or somehow save it to skydrive from excel or words "save" or "save as" window. I also have this strange folder appearing in my win explorer and I think it where my skydrive is located.
i bought a new laptop (HP Envy m6-1140sg) some weeks ago. I have Nortin Internet Security installed.
I wanted to try out that NIS Trial Reset because HP Laptops have NIS already installed. I rebooted my Laptop into safe mode with Network and then started it. I accidentally chose to Purge my NIS. I didn't know what purge means. . I opened the Trial Reset app again and chose to revert my trial to 60 days. Then it disappeared. I rebooted my laptop in Normal Mode and then tried to open NIS. But it didnt come up. I uninstalled NIS and then I noticed this:
When I try to open the Explorer on the desktop, the screen would just go blue and then Explorer closes itself. 2. When I right click a shortcut or anything the screen also goes blue. After the screen goes blue it would go normal again.
PS. I can only open Explorer when i open it through an other shortcut. ex. I got a shortcut to an directory (C:Program Files (x86)Microsoft GamesMicrosoft Flight Simulator XaerosoftAirbus X ExtendedDocumentation) That is the only way I can open Explorer, but as i said, the screen will go blue if I right click anything.
Not matter how many times I let Explorer build the thumbnails, after any reboot or shutdown/power-on the thumbnails get erased and I have to rebuild them again. It happens with all images and videos the same.
IMO, Windows 8 is definitely cool, but it has some rough edges that should've been ironed out before prime time.
I upgraded my Windows 7 to Windows 8 pro back in November. Windows explorer has always had issues but now I cant open windows explorer (any way) without it crashing and reload. In SAFE MODE it seems to work fine. I have tried disabling all the Services (non MS) and the Startup function but in normal mode but Windows Explorer still crashes.
I'm definitely not the only one experiencing this issue. A quick search online shows other people reporting their Windows 8 explorer frequently crashes. Is there a solution or something I should try to see if it can resolve the issue?
I recently upgraded from Windows 7 to Windows 8.1 (pro, 64bit) and everything seemed to be fine, except even in the beggining the file explorer was very very slow. (Had the green bar loading all the time) But today, the file explorer became completely unusable, 19 out of 20 times when I open "My Computer" it doesn't even show me my harddrives, even tho it should say Local Disc C and Local Disc D etc.
Screenshot: [URL] .....
While trying to upload this file, it didn't recognize at first that I had actually selected an image. The images while trying to select a file to upload are either blanks or pieces of paper, instead of previews.
Screenshot: [URL] ....
When trying to load a folder, in this case DOWNLOADS folder, where there should be a couple of TV series and a few films, it comes up with nothing, also the green bar is constant, and doesn't give results in the end. + I can't change the preview of images, like if they have small icons, big icons, medium icons etc. It has been grayed out.
Screenshot: [URL] ....
Also if I delete an image, it remains on my desktop till I restart my PC. Overally it's really really slow and very many of the functions seem to not work. I have ClassicShell installed, I've tried uninstalling it, didn't work, reinstalled it, because I find it easier to find control panel and etc with.
This is all software I currently have installed: [URL] .....
Hardware: CPU: AMD Phenom II X4 945 RAM: 8,00GB Dual-Channel DDR3 @ 669MHz (Vengeance) Motherboard: Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd. GA-MA790XT-UD4P Video: ATI Radeon HD 4870 (1024 MB) HDD1: WD 500 GB/16MB/S-ATA HDD2: Samsung 200 GB/8MB/S-ATA II Power Supply: 650W Chieftec CFT-650-14CS
How to make shortcuts appear in the sidebar of your windows explorer. I have a shortcut of the online backup program Skydrive but it wont appear in my sidebar. On the picture you can see what i mean with Side Bar etc.
I started up my computer and Windows explorer randomly froze up and hung. I didnt do anything to provoke it. I just sat here waiting for my computer to boot up.Then when I thought it was finished I opened firefox. Then Windows explorer just freezes completely. I tried doing windows key + r. It opened the run window but it froze. Then I tried moving my mouse on the right to open up the charm bar, ( I think it's called that) to hit settings and then restart. When I clicked settings the whole bar just closed out and would close out every time.
I right clicked on the task bar to try and open task manager. When I clicked on task manager it wouldn't ever open. So I couldn't even shut down properly. I just pushed the power button. Then I turned it on again and the same exact thing happened.So I shut it off again.
Then I turned it back on and went to msconfig before it froze up and I set it to boot into safe mode.Then I got into safe mode and ran a malware bytes scan and an avast scan. Nothing came up on either so I just went back to normal boot. The problem stopped now but I want to know what caused that whole thing to happen because it hasn't happened to me before.So I want to look at event viewer to see if that'll explain it. Where would I find that at in event viewer?
I have found little issue, that when i run Windows Explorer and browse folders, it takes very long time to open folder content, about 10 sec. (see picture).That's just when i power on computer or restart, after first slow loading folders, then works fine.
I found that on both disks, SSD and HDD. I have Windows 8.1 installed, clean install.
I didn't notice that on my earlier setups. My hardware configuration didn't change.
