I am running windows 8 pro and every since I install the OS the one issue I have constantly had is the so called GREEN RIBBON OF DEATH. When I open the file explorer (windows explorer) like my computer, the drives and folders will not load completely but will continue to load with the green bar on the address bar continuously loading. This is so frustrating.

I have heard of this problem with windows vista and some windows 7 but I have never experienced it for all the years I used vista and windows 7. Unfortunately, ever since I install windows 8, this problem will not go away. It happens so often and restarting explorer.exe does not fix it. I will have to restart my computer for it me to browse my drives and folders using file explorer and after awhile the GREEN RIBBON OF DEATH will start happening again.

I have done a complete fresh install with very few of my software installed on the OS but I still have this problem.

Is anyone else having this problem with windows 8 and if so, it there any help out there.

SYSTEM INFO: WIN 8 Pro, 8GB Ram, 3:20GHz AMD Processor, 640GB Hard drive.

• Edited by Nayogod Saturday, October 27, 2012 2:41 PM

In Windows 8 thumbnails are enabled by default, so if you have a lot of photos in say your downloads folder, then it will take a while to open the folder because a lot of thumbnails are being generated. To turn off thumbnails follow the procedure below.

This procedure disables thumbnails on all folders:

1. Open Windows Explorer
2. On the right of the tools bar ribbon click the "Options" button not the down arrow on the options button
3. Click the View Tab
4. Check "Always Show Icons Never Thumbnails"
5. Click "Apply to Folders"

This procedure will change the thumbnail creation behavior for all folders. As you say thumbnails are a nice feature so you probably don't want to turn it off completely, but you should probably only have it turned on in the Pictures folder.

To turn on the thumbnails only in the Pictures folder follow these steps:

1. Open Windows Explorer and Navigate to the Pictures folder
2. On the right of the tools bar ribbon click the "Options" button not the down arrow on the options button
3. Click the View Tab
4. Clear the checkbox near "Always Show Icons Never Thumbnails"

This time, do not click Apply to Folders, and the setting will only be on in the Pictures Folder.

• Proposed as answer by Wolverine58 Sunday, July 14, 2013 3:30 PM
• Edited by Wolverine58 Sunday, July 14, 2013 3:51 PM Left out a sentence
• Marked as answer by Brandon RecordsModerator Friday, January 17, 2014 4:48 PM

That was not the answer  in my case, which is like that of others i saw, and the quick answer was  to find an XP PC.

I have "Always show icons, never thumbnails" checked, but i   plugged in an 320gb sata drive using a USB adapter cable,  and after about 10 seconds   Windows 8.1 proceeded to search the drive, showing the green ribbon, evidently doing what the Autoplay would do in XP, but under  that OS   i could cancel the Autoplay search and get right to the  files.

But in Windows 8.1 i let it try to get  whatever info it wanted, which it did  very slowly, even though this PC has a ASRock 970 EXTREME3 mobo; AMD 6350 3.9ghz 6 core 64bit cpu; 8gb ram, and i  had just rebooted.

Finally i cancelled the ribbon, but which rendered explorer inoperable. It was still running, as Process Explorer showed, and restarting explorer.exe   did not help. No taskbar, no window explorer (Win key and e), thus requiring a reboot (for which used the power.exe utility, which i have hotkeyed.)

When i rebooted, i saw the Taskbar had moved to the side, combining it with the  Start menu (I use Classic Shell). I dragged it back but then it was missing my Quick Launch bar i had added.

Then i plugged in the sata drive with the USB adapter cable, but it did not show up in Windows Explorer, and froze the Drive manager until i unplugged the drive.

So i got an old Toshiba Travelmate 2480 (1.6-GHz Intel Celeron M), and it quickly recognized the drive, began the autoplay which i stopped, and i then opened the drive. And did a quick format of a partition.

I had a similar problem with a new Team Color Turn 16GB USB 2.0 Flash Drive (Green), which W/8 was slow to recognize, and then said    was write protected, and  yet could not a full format  to remove alleged write protection, even under Device Manager.   But which the same XP laptop quickly recognized, and formatted.  Now it works fine in W/8. Thank God for alternatives.

• Edited by PBY777 Saturday, January 11, 2014 9:37 PM

hey guys, unfortunately, i work with graphics all day, every day, so working without thumbnails would be super painful. btw, i get GROD in directories with only one JPG, so it's not how many.

i have windows 8.1 on an SSD in a new Lenovo desktop, and these green ribbons of death are killing me. even if i switch off thumbnails, i need previews, and the Preview Pane often just states "No preview available." sometimes the pane sticks on one preview, regardless of other files being selected.

especially frustrating, i can't preview PDFs any more for some reason. related?

i've tried the solutions suggested on various forums to no avail. could be related to the second drive installed in this machine, but if so, might be unfixable i guess.

• Edited by davidicus Monday, July 14, 2014 6:18 PM

I'm just curious as to why this issue has never been fully resolved since it's inception in Windows Vista.  Either case, I believe the symptoms described and resolution can be found via the following links...the batch files described in the "resolution" link may need to be tweaked for Win 8 and 8.1.  I do not code, I just execute and cross my fingers. :)

Description
http://community.spiceworks.com/topic/454342-windows-explorer-green-ribbon-of-death

Resolution?
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/15699-folder-template-default.html

• Edited by Luis Lamberty Monday, September 15, 2014 11:42 PM

I applied "Show icons, never thumbnails" about 5 minutes ago, and my This PC is still trying to update.  All it needs to show is two drive letters and folders!  :(  Whoever decided that Windows Explored should  not show files until it does whatever else it wants to look at, should be shot.   I'm having to switch to XYExplorer just to function.