Windows explorer freezes when using Open with option.Whenever I right click on any file and select Open with option, windows explorer is hanging/freezing.Need help on this.
54 Answers
I am writing this just because I was so frustrated about this, and the solutions of CCleaner and DISM didn't work for me, and I couldn't find anything online with a solution that worked.
I tried deleting the icon cache and that seemed to work for me.
Create a batch file per these instructions and run as admin - be aware a restart is requested and advised:
@echo off
set iconcache=%localappdata%\IconCache.db
set iconcache_x=%localappdata%\Microsoft\Windows\Explorer\iconcache*
echo.
echo The explorer process must be temporarily killed before deleting the IconCache.db file.
echo.
echo Please SAVE ALL OPEN WORK before continuing.
echo.
pause
echo.
If exist "%iconcache%" goto delete
echo.
echo The %localappdata%\IconCache.db file has already been deleted.
echo.
If exist "%iconcache_x%" goto delete
echo.
echo The %localappdata%\Microsoft\Windows\Explorer\IconCache_*.db files have already been deleted.
echo.
exit /B
:delete
echo.
echo Attempting to delete IconCache.db files...
echo.
ie4uinit.exe -show
taskkill /IM explorer.exe /F
If exist del /A /F /Q "%iconcache%"
If exist del /A /F /Q "%iconcache_x%"
start explorer.exe
echo.
echo IconCache database files have been successfully deleted.
goto restart
:restart
echo.
echo.
echo You will need to restart the PC to finish rebuilding your icon cache.
echo.
CHOICE /C:YN /M "Do you want to restart the PC now?"
IF ERRORLEVEL 2 goto no
IF ERRORLEVEL 1 goto yes
:yes
shutdown /r /f /t 00
:no
exit /BThe linked page doesn't state that the icon cache causes the "open with" hang, but does state that the cache can get corrupted sometimes.
6In a Microsoft Answers thread on this, someone had good luck running CCleaner to clean up their registry. I downloaded the free version and ran it, it found a bad Open With... registry entry for an Intel utility I no longer have and never used, plus 146 more registry references to invalid paths left over from old software. I let it fix them all, and my Open with... hang is gone.
1If your system (Windows Explorer service) crashes when you right-click, that means one of the context menu options is causing an issue. It is most likely a recent software installation and an entry added by it to the context menu.
- Launch the Event Viewer: Click the start menu and type eventvwr.msc. Press enter.
- Go to Windows Logs > Application Logs.
- From here, you will be able to find the crash logs. You can check for hints.
- Although I don't want to recommend third-party software, you can use ShellExView. You can also use the registry but since it can be complicated, I will explain the easier option.
- Run the ShellExView and Click Options. You want to select the following options.
- Now look at the existing list and also the event log and see if you can find the one with issues. You can disable all or one by one and examine the behavior. Then you will have to remove that specific menu from the context menu properly uninstalling that product/software. Note: You can restart Windows Explorer by using the Options menu in the ShellExView.
Click “Start” or press
(Win)+R.
Type
cmdand then press Ctrl+Shift+Enter to open an elevated command prompt (i.e., Command Prompt with admin rights). If the User Account Control dialog box appears, confirm that the action it displays is what you want, type your administrator password (if requested), and then click “Continue” (or “Yes”, if applicable).Type or copy paste the below command lines into it:
DISM.exe /Online /Cleanup-image /Scanhealth DISM.exe /Online /Cleanup-image /Restorehealth sfc /scannow
