Windows Explorer has encountered a problem and needs to close.

[Wooody]

I am facing a regular Windows Explorer error on my system. The error says that Explorer has stopped working and we have to end the same. I had checked in Event Viewer to find some reported error based on the same which was mentioned as Application error. Whenever I open my Video Album folder I am getting that error on the screen.

[LeSueur]

That can be virus issue or your Explorer is corrupted. There is no way to fix that I think. Try to boot your system in Safe Mode and see you can access your folder or not. Also try to access System Restore if possible. You can do that with Windows bootable disc also. If nothing works then the only option that remains is to format your system completely. Windows Explorer is the only utility in Windows that allow you to access folders and files. You can try a third party explorer also and setup the same on startup.

[Hawkin's]

I am sorry to post this issue here, but I too need help for a similar issue. First for sometime my explorer freezes. I have to logout and then login back again and it works. Second Internet Explorer is crashing on load. It is giving some oleaut32.dll missing error on launch. I have no idea about this file. I had just recently upgraded my Office edition. Does the issue lies with that. I was getting a similar dll error after Windows Update on Office 2000 but that is gone now. I am getting a new error. I searched on google and found that oleaut32.dll is related to msn.

[Oshea]

I have a similar error and a dll file listed which is causing the issue. It is trustincontext.dll. You must check your log file in detail and look for the associated file in that. The error does not appear with IE or Firefox, only when I open any document through Explorer the error popups. On Google I found multiple results based on this dll file. Some says that it is a virus while some says it is a utility related to internet explorer. Even if I delete the same then still the file will give issue on IE. The only solution worked for me is to run a registry repair tool. There are certain invalid registry files which are causing the crash.

[DesTiny!]

User32.dll is the file is responsible for my Explorer crash. When I open some word documents or a folder the system freezes and then I receive the same error. It looks there is a virus in the system. After checking the in logs I found user32.dll as the source which is causing the issue. The problem is System Restore can do nothing here. I had restored my system a number of time, but that does worked out. The file is a part of Microsoft Windows library files. The dll file is related to some user component that is responsible to work in Explorer. Something that manages Windows Interface. I had downloaded this file from web and replaced it. I had searched the file and found the location somewhere in Windows directory. After a reboot the system went back to normal.

[Jacob.M]

It depends on the edition of Windows. If it is a older edition of Windows XP then there are less chances that you can fix that without formatting. If you can provide the full detail of error report, you can expect to get better solution here. Go on Event Viewer. It is located in Control Panel. Look for the event id and error information with description mentioned in the same. Put down all the information here. Some dll files is either corrupted or damage and virus can be also the issue behind that. Now when you start your pc run your antivirus instead of opening any folder. Run Task Manager and check the system usage. If it is high then it is time to format your computer.

[Diggs]

I am bit doubtful about the answer provided by you. For those system who cannot access anything, this is a serious concern. I am waiting for Windows Update to get fix for that. As there is a error reporting service which tells Microsoft about the issue. Registry fix can give temporary support only.

[gerry]

Try all methods in safe mode. It is the only way to get your system works. If system restore fails in regular mode then run that again in Safe Mode. Disable internet access and run a full system antivirus scan. I was having a game folder in which there were around 400 virus. I was not aware about that, they all were detected in safe mode. There are number of things that you can do in safe mode. You can troubleshoot your system on minimum settings. Try startup repair.

[Illeana]

I had gone through this issue a number of time from now. Whatever steps I had tried gave me temporary help only. First was disabling the antivirus for sometime. I am using Norton. Second was running system restore in Safe Mode. That was the best solution I found. It is easy and capable of giving you old settings back. But there is one issue with this. If there is a virus in your system, it will be restored. The second time when I tried this back the system restarted. Those all restore files were corrupted. The system is almost on edge. Windows Explorer is not working, System restore crashed, etc. Safe Mode provides you only minimum options. It offer you option to atleast backup your data and then do other stuff.

[Eithne]

Even in my system System Restore failed. I do not know why. Last month that worked really well. I had made no changes in the system. No new software is installed. Only updates were on. System restore are the first to get corrupted due to virus. I had tried Windows bootable disc to run that but it did not responded. One thing that you can do is boot in safe mode with command prompt. Type sfc /scannow and hit enter. It will check your system file integrity and will fix if any file is corrupted.

[Han$naH]

My system crashed just two days before. The error was related to Windows Explorer. The logs shows shodcvw.dll file causing the issue. After a while the desktop reloads on its own. I had tried different type of antispyware to check if there is any virus or infection in the computer. But the scan did not find anything. So this does not looks like a virus issue. But how does suddenly Windows Explorer started giving this error. I had restored my system to an older date through System Restore but the error is constant on boot. The only difference is the desktop loads on its own after a few time.

[Janos™]

The file you said shodcvw.dll is Microsoft Shell Doc Object and Control Library. Dll files are mostly fail to work due to corruption. There are number of issue behind that. Virus, unnecessary installations, etc. To fix the issue you will have to restore that file. You can either download from web or simply get the file from any other working system. There is nothing related to virus here. It is better you must keep your system updated and your antivirus also. I hope that after restoring the file you will not receive any other dll error in Windows.

[Flappers]

My error report shows quartz.dll. It looks Explorer is affected to ample of dll files corruption. I am using Windows XP. The error is constant and I am not able to access file inside my system. I am having a old XP installation disk. I had tried to run sfc /scannow but that did not helped. It checked for files and took long time for scan. But there is on help. On reboot again the same error is trigged. I am looking for a bit more info on this dll file. What it does and does it is related to a virus. In morning suddenly the pc started. It looks it was repaired on its own. I launched IE and updated it. I am also using Firefox in my system. I had disabled all the add-ons from the browser and updated new edition of browser along with Windows Update. Now the error appears a few time on boot. I want to stop this completely. I am bit confused here about what to do now. System restore is not working a all. Malware tools are of no use they found nothing. The last option that I have is to run a Repair setup through XP installation disc. But it is going to wipe out my bookmarks and desktop files. I am going to keep this as a last option.

[Toby-Martin]

Quartz dll is related to Direct X. There are two ways to fix this. First update your existing direct x version and second run a good registry repair software. There are many free. It looks some recent changes in the computer has done this. The virus can be responsible but as you said that your antivirus has detected nothing. So you can leave the same. To get your data you can try LiveCD. There are ample of available on web. You can get that and backup your desktop folders, your bookmarks, etc.

[Abdulmajid]

As per me it looks that it is a waste of time. There are tons of thread made on that and ample of users says that you have to re-install Windows. Windows Explorer is the only way by which we can access files and folders. Virus mostly target dll files related to that. The cpu usage goes quiet high in it. Repair setup takes lesser time. And even if you restore your system the virus is not wiped out completely. Formatting is the best option I think which works well.