File Explorer crashes 3x every time I restart

Community Support
1
  • Which OS (Operating System)?

Windows 11 Pro 64 bit

  • Which release of your OS (Operating System)?

Version: 22H2
Build: 22621.2134
Experience: Windows Feature Experience Pack 1000.22659.1000.0

  • Framework laptop (11th or 12th generation Framework laptop) are you asking for support with?

12th gen,

Since a couple days ago, every time I restart my laptop File Explorer crashes three times before finally stabilizing.

Some things to note:

  • I had two Windows Updates install recently:
    Screenshot 2023-08-12 225919
    Screenshot 2023-08-12 2259191308Ă—190 29 KB
  • I use Explorer Patcher, which has also stopped working entirely since the above updates.
  • I recently started using virtual desktops (not sure when exactly in the timeline). I used them previously with ThisIsWin11 installed with no problems.

The error popup:

Screenshot 2023-08-12 230611
Screenshot 2023-08-12 230611985Ă—754 69.6 KB

One error event log (of many):

Faulting application name: explorer.exe, version: 10.0.22621.2070, time stamp: 0x2bd7252c
Faulting module name: twinui.pcshell.dll, version: 10.0.22621.2070, time stamp: 0x0eca457b
Exception code: 0xc0000409
Fault offset: 0x00000000001ab0cd
Faulting process id: 0x0x21A4
Faulting application start time: 0x0x1D9CDAC5C07D474
Faulting application path: C:\Windows\explorer.exe
Faulting module path: C:\Windows\SYSTEM32\twinui.pcshell.dll
Report Id: fe7e9fcf-74b6-4068-9a7f-764707adb9a7
Faulting package full name: 
Faulting package-relative application ID:

Lots of “Fault bucket” type 0, 4, and 5 as well.

I have a strong suspicion the answer is going to be “Stop using Explorer Patcher”, which is quite frustrating. Thank you Micro$oft for dumbing down the user experience for everyone.

2

I mean, did you try uninstalling Explorer Patcher to see if that is the causing it?

Did you search the issues on ExplorerPatcher’s github? Issues · valinet/ExplorerPatcher · GitHub

I wouldn’t pay anything for windows myself.
And if you are really truly tired of microsoft, then you should consider migrating to Linux. Dual booting is a good way to start.

3

No I didn’t, should have started there! The latest three issues are regarding this. Thanks for the pointer.

I don’t want to uninstall Explorer Patcher, because Win11 Explorer sucks and ThisIsWin11 isn’t free.

I’m not going to pirate my main OS, that’s a bit much.

I was maining Linux (Debian) when I first got my framework, but I’m not really a linux guy. Got tired of the many issues (mic and camera wouldn’t work at all, text was incredibly tiny because of the high-res screen, and the usual never-ending linux configuration hell).

I do have a 1TB expansion card on the way that I plan to put Debian for dual booting. You can’t boot Windows from USB and I didn’t want to split the drive. It will be nice to have a dedicated Linux development environment, but there are too many technical difficulties with the Framework hardware and far too many programs that aren’t compatible with Linux.

Thanks again for your help! This issue is resolved and in the future I’ll start with the more relevant support forum.

4

FYI, I’ve been using Fedora since I bought my framework laptop (Intel 12th gen). Everything works fine out of the box (mic, camera, fingerprint sensor, ambient light sensor,…). I’ve upgraded through 3 versions of Fedora (36, 37, 38) since then.

For the resolution problem, I’m using GNOME fractional scaling. It’s a bit buggy on Fedora 36 (GNOME 42) but with the current GNOME 44, I see no problem at all.

I still keep my old windows 10 installation for playing games (because eGPU on linux is kinda sucks). I don’t bother upgrade to windows 11 because windows 11 is a lie. My windows installation is stored in an external nvme drive and connected to the laptop using a “nvme to USB 3” enclosure. You may have to enable nvme drive on boot manually, but after that, it work flawlessly.

5

Thanks for the insight, I will try Fedora out first with my expansion card! Would love to have all of the hardware features working out of the box without too much fiddling.

Windows 11 is little more than a reskin but at least support for it should last longer than Win10. I hope.

I did attempt to boot my Framework from a USB->NVME enclosure but wasn’t able to. I can’t recall if that was due to keying on the pre-existing installation, or some hardware incompatibilities - I don’t have the enclosure on me right now.

At any rate, frustrations with MicroSoft aside, I’ve heard the adage “Linux is only free if you don’t value your time” and I’d have to agree. Despite using it since high school it hasn’t gotten any easier. I don’t make the OSs, I just use them. But I’ll be glad to have the dual-boot option for certain types of development e.g. for Raspberry Pi.

Thanks for your tips!

6

This really depends on which chip they used on the connector. There are only 2 possible chips, while the cheap one is very unreliable and has less features the more expensive one should not have issues like that.

I know because I bought a connector with a cheap chip that gave me usb 2.0 speeds on a NVME! Yep, got 20MB/s instead of 1GB/s (top of the line).

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