Windows Explorer Not Responding

[Paul]

I just recently installed Vista, and every time i try and do pretty much
anything (Access computer, control panel) It gives me the this error, and
explorer has to restart, i tried reinstalling but still nothing. Any advice??

[painistemporary]

Hey Paul,

I'm affraid I don't have answer, but I just wanted to add my voice to yours
because I have exactly the same problem. Here's hoping an answer exists!

[Gerry]

Please add me to the unhappy list ... with me, it's any time I right click
on the desktop ... I get the big lag and the eventual "Windows Explorer Not
responding message" ... How difficult is it to go back to XP??

[Gerry]

"Gerry" wrote:Okay ... I found my problem ... dumb luck helped ... I have a
160GB external hard drive that is messed up. somehow it was messing up
explorer. I powered it off ... disconnected it and all is well ... no more
"not responding" messages, and all aspects of explorer seem to be working
fine. Now if only I can fix my hard drive ... it has every picture I own on
it. I just bought Spinrite disc recovery ... wish me luck.

[Bob Hansen]

I had this problem as well. I installed Vista on a PC I already had. It
turned out that updating my bios fixed the problem. It also fixed a problem
with the PC not shutting down.

[Athena]

hm...can you explain to me in dumb-down terms on how you fixed it? Did you
just simply turn it off and...unplug it?

I'm having the same problem except it's when I right click in my removable
media folder...

[Grumpy Old Man]

I got a new Gateway Computer with Vista installed primarily to organize many
photos and to make DVDs and CDs for my children and family.
I have used file names and file folders for years and still like that
organization.
However, after some photo organization, I cannot even acces my pictures.
When I try to start Pictures, I get a long delay then a message "Windows
Explorer (not responding)."
Other than taking a hatchet to my computer, is there a solution to this
problem?

[Michael Solomon]

Have you checked the graphics card manufacturer's website to make sure you
have the latest drivers for your video card? Have you installed any other
applications that deal with photos? If yes, have you made sure they are
fully Vista compatible and that you have the latest updates for any such
applications? Also, check Event Viewer under administrative tools for any
errors that coincide with when this event occurs, double click the event,
the information inside may give a clue as to the source of the issue.

[EdHu]

I post following discovery on another thread hoping to help anyone who had the same problem that I got. If it applies to you please read.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

For those of you who received (Not Responding) on your Windows Explorer a few seconds right after reboot I would like to share my past finding on an obviously a major bug in the lastest patch from Microsoft for Windows Vista.

It took me almost two full days trying to diagnose the problem and eventually found where the cuase is.. Wish to report the problem back to Microsoft but they have no way for me to get in support easily and I have to pay $59 for tell them what they made a major mistake?

Anyway, on November I installed the new patch KB941649 (I also installed KB941600 and KB905866, but I think that was the criminal one). It updated a Control Panel Item timedate.cpl to 698KB. From that point on I could not get my system up as normal. About a minute or so after the reboot the system will go into a sleep mode and the first one is the Windows Explorer. Tried almost everything from disabling unrecognized services to unknown startup process and nothing seems helped.

Well, if you have the same problem, here is what you can do ...

1. boot system
2. right click task bar as soon as system gets up and select Property
3. on the Notification Area tab, unclick the "Clock"
4. hit Ok and see if you can log off to save the changes
5. when you get the system back up rename the timedate.cpl in
%Windows root%\System32 folder to timedate-cpl.bad


Let me know if you find it does not work for you or questions.

Good luck!