We recently put in a new SBS 2011 server for a client and their entire office is now having Windows Explorer crash issues (but just on the Windows 7 Pro machines, not the XP and we don't have any Vista). I've tried the following with no success: SFC /SCANNOW My Computer > click on "Organize" tab (top left) > folder and search options > view tab. Check "Always show icons, never thumbnails" option and uncheck "Display file icon on thumbnails". This stops windows from generating the images and solved the problem for me. Less visually flashy yes, but at least no need for a wipe and restart =). Update video drivers msconfig and disable any 3rd party programs Run this: CHKDSK /r 1.Click Start. 2.In the Search Bar, type regedit and press Enter. 3.Locate the following key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\ Microsoft\ SQMClient\Windows\DisabledSessions 4.In the right pane delete this subkey: MachineThrottling 5.Turn your computer off and back on for the change to take effect. Here is the result of one of the errors if this helps. I need a solution to this quick! Problem signature: Problem Event Name: APPCRASH Application Name: Explorer.EXE Application Version: 6.1.7601.17567 Application Timestamp: 4d672ee4 Fault Module Name: StackHash_1b9c Fault Module Version: 6.1.7601.17725 Fault Module Timestamp: 4ec4aa8e Exception Code: c0000374 Exception Offset: 00000000000c40f2 OS Version: 6.1.7601.2.1.0.256.48 Locale ID: 1033 Additional Information 1: 1b9c Additional Information 2: 1b9cf58aa3eb0253ef97003bb64067ff Additional Information 3: 0d46 Additional Information 4: 0d46cac5fc19699ef9dffce63dabbbb6

Give a try to exception in DEP. M.

Here is a major part of response of MS Support Engn: Do you receive this error when you launch a particular program? Do you remember any recent changes made on your computer after which you are receiving this error? The StackHash error occurs when DEP is invoked and has an issue with whatever application youre trying to run (and there are several hundred out there that seem to give it fits). The error is related to Data Execution Prevention. We will narrow down on the issue, by booting the computer in clean boot. To boot the computer inclean boot refer the link: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/929135 If the issue does not persist after booting in clean boot state, then continue with the troubleshooting to check which application or software is causing the explorer to crash, you may continue with step 2 from the above link. Make sure you reset the computer to normal mode from step 7 after completing with troubleshooting. After finding which application is causing the problem, you may follow the below steps: Open the Start menu and click Control PanelBrowse to System Maintenance then SystemIn the left panel, select Advanced System Settings from the available linksYou should now see the System Properties Window, which will have three sections. The top section is labeledPerformance and has a Settings button. Click this button.Select the Data Execution Prevention tab. Select the option which reads Turn on DEP for all programs and services except those I select.Use the Browse button to locate the executable file for the application you were trying to start (oiwsetup.exe) when you received the StackHash error, and click Open to add it to your exceptions list.Click Apply or OK to commit your changes.

Also, can you check what is logged in Event Viewer on the crashes: Start > type eventvwr in the "Search programs and files" box and press "Enter" > expand "Custom Views" > "Administrative Events" Look through the "Administrative Events" for Application Errors involving iexplore.exe. Double-click on each event for more details. Also, if the problem persists it may be useful to try to capture a user-mode dump of the explorer.exe crash to get more information on the crashes. You can configure Windows to create user-mode dumps. Create a System Restore Point first. If you copy and paste the following in Notepad and save as a .reg file, then right-click the .reg file and select "Merge" to add to the registry, a .dmp file at the time explorer.exe crashes should be created in the C:\CrashDumps folder: Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00 [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Windows Error Reporting\LocalDumps\explorer.exe] "DumpFolder"=hex(2):43,00,3a,00,5c,00,43,00,72,00,61,00,73,00,68,00,44,00,75,\ 00,6d,00,70,00,73,00,00,00 After Explorer (explorer.exe) crashes, can you then make the .dmp file available (provide link) via Windows Live SkyDrive or similar site? The following link has information on using Windows Live SkyDrive: http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/w7itproui/thread/4fc10639-02db-4665-993a-08d865088d65 More info on collecting user-mode dumps: msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library85).aspx

I'll get right on this and post back to you by Monday. Thanks!

I tried to use DEP already but it said it "You can not set DEP attributes on 64-bit executables" and won't allow me to do it for explorer.exe. I can't a clean boot because the folks in the office need to use their computers and they are over an hour away from me. Are there any other options to try? Thanks for any ideas.

Hi, I would like to verify if the issue occurred on all Windows 7 clients. I suggest using ShellExView to check third party extension. 1. Download ShellExView v1.41 from the following link http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/shexview.zip Please Note: The third-party product discussed here is manufactured by a company that is independent of Microsoft. We make no warranty, implied or otherwise, regarding this product's performance or reliability. 2. Right-click the "shexview.zip" file, select "Extract All", the Extraction Wizard will prompt. 3. Click Next, input "C:\ShellExView" (without the quotation marks) in the "Files will be extracted to this directory" textbox. 4. Click Next and click Finnish. 5. Open the "C:\ShellExView" folder and double-click the "shexview.exe" file. It will scan the registry for all the shell extensions. 6. Select all the non-Microsoft extensions in pink by press "Ctrl" in the keyboard. 7. Click the "Disable Selected Items" on the toolbar and click Yes. 8. Restart your computer and check if the issue is resolved.Niki Han TechNet Community Support

I can't separate a computer because they are all in a production environment. I've updated all of the drivers and firmwares and the problem remains. I can't restore back to an earlier point because that would roll back the changes that allow the computer to work on the new domain. I've removed the antivirus software (Trend Worry Free) on one computer and it still occurs. I'm just at my wits end.

I've run ShellEx and disabled everything that wasn't Microsoft, except Trend antivirus. We will need that running. I've also imported the registry command you've listed above. I'm just waiting on the computer to crash Windows Explorer and then I should have something to submit. Thanks!

Start Windows in Selective Startup mode using msconfig. The problem should not persist in selective startup mode since all drivers and services are disabled. 1. add the programs startur, services and drivers one by one and restart the PC each time. 2. continue to do this until the problem returns. Once the problem returns, the last service/drive that you added is the likely culprit. Miguel Fra | Falcon IT Services, Miami, FL www.falconitservices.com | www.falconits.com | Blog

Here are links to the two dmp files that I've been able to capture. Her explorer crashed while I was just trying to email these files for uploading! https://skydrive.live.com/redir?resid=665B5B601AACA0A9!105 https://skydrive.live.com/redir?resid=665B5B601AACA0A9!106 Please let me know if you have any ideas. Thanks!

No one? I really could use the help.

Hello, Does it crash randomly while surfing or as soon as you open it? Have you disable all add-ons? Have you disable your AV? Other that upgrading to SBS 2011, what else changed? Is this an entirely new setup or were the workstation there before? Did you do an upgrade from an older AD or just add the WS's to a new 2011 AD? Miguel Fra | Falcon IT Services, Miami, FL www.falconitservices.com | www.falconits.com | Blog

You are thinking Internet Explorer. It's Windows Explorer that is the problem. Add-ons don't matter here. I have disabled AV, removed everything that isn't a Microsoft product via the ShellExView as mentioned earlier, and it still continues to happen. One guy asked that I upload the dump files and I have but I don't know if anyone knows how to read them because I sure don't.

Sorry about the misunderstanding. So the exception means that explorer is getting confused by the data it's being fed. If you removed the shell extensions and you still experience the problem, try this: Set apart a test machine- Don't just disable AV, uninstall it completely, reboot and then test. Download and run malwarebytes on one of the problem PC's to make sure it's clean. Disable any programs at startup. Start Windows in Selective Startup using msconfig and see if it happens like that. Then add the services one by one till you get to the culprit. . . Were these Win7 computers there before in working order? Did anything change on them? Other than SBS 2011 upgrade, what else changed? SBS 2011 would not cause such a problem that I have heard of. Miguel Fra | Falcon IT Services, Miami, FL www.falconitservices.com | www.falconits.com | Blog

I tried debugging one of those dump files and got this: ----------------- begin debug info Loading Dump File [C:\Temp\explorer.exe.2188.dmp] User Mini Dump File: Only registers, stack and portions of memory are available Symbol search path is: http://msdl.microsoft.com/download/symbols Executable search path is: Windows 7 Version 7601 (Service Pack 1) MP (4 procs) Free x64 Product: WinNt, suite: SingleUserTS Machine Name: Debug session time: Tue Oct 2 05:42:56.000 2012 (UTC + 10:00) System Uptime: not available Process Uptime: 0 days 0:04:51.000 ................................................................ ................................................................ ............................................................. Loading unloaded module list ...... This dump file has an exception of interest stored in it. The stored exception information can be accessed via .ecxr. (88c.c9c): Access violation - code c0000005 (first/second chance not available) ntdll!ZwWaitForMultipleObjects+0xa: 00000000`777818ca c3 ret ----------------- end debug info That "access violation" and the "ntdll" reference led me to this thread: http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_7-hardware/windows-7-64b-explorer-restarting-all-the-time/92fb3b35-7ee4-468f-844d-8108c6076527?msgId=2dd84a00-58f4-4799-a5fc-43d9d8994c00 Not sure if any of that helps ... but I would suggest trying: (1) see if there are any video driver updates available; and maybe (2) check for any recently installed updates in Windows Update (see: Control Panel); or even (3) test with one PC and do a system restore back to, say, 1 month ago ... and see if the crashes disappear (you might want to take a backup, a system image and restore disk, for that PC before trying to wind it backwards in time)

The dump files did not show a third party file caused the crash. Various Windows system files were involved in the crash. Here's the "STACK_TEXT" from one of the crashes which shows the files involved such as the shell32.dll, explorerframe.dll, etc.: STACK_TEXT: 00000000`7786b4b8 00000000`7779dc8f ntdll! ?? ::FNODOBFM::`string'+0x10c54 00000000`7786b4c0 000007fe`ff068e56 ole32!CoTaskMemFree+0x36 00000000`7786b4c8 000007fe`fe3ff580 shell32!CShellFolderSet::~CShellFolderSet+0x55 00000000`7786b4d0 000007fe`fe3ff508 shell32!CShellFolderSet::`vector deleting destructor'+0x14 00000000`7786b4d8 000007fe`fe2dbb86 shell32!CRegFolderEnum::Release+0x22 00000000`7786b4e0 000007fe`f584ba00 explorerframe!DPA_ReleaseObjWithSiteCB<IUpdatableItemSet>+0x20 00000000`7786b4e8 000007fe`fbe50125 comctl32!DPA_EnumCallback+0x41 00000000`7786b4f0 000007fe`fbe50162 comctl32!DPA_DestroyCallback+0xe 00000000`7786b4f8 000007fe`f584b5e9 explorerframe!DPA_DestroyCallback+0x4d 00000000`7786b500 000007fe`f58ab2d8 explorerframe!CBreadcrumbBar::_TBWndProc+0x1b0 00000000`7786b508 000007fe`f584d4b8 explorerframe!CBreadcrumbBar::s_TBWndProc+0x24 00000000`7786b510 000007fe`fbd469a0 comctl32!CallNextSubclassProc+0x8c 00000000`7786b518 000007fe`fbd46877 comctl32!MasterSubclassProc+0xe7 00000000`7786b520 00000000`77649bd1 user32!UserCallWinProcCheckWow+0x1ad 00000000`7786b528 00000000`776472cb user32!DispatchClientMessage+0xc3 00000000`7786b530 00000000`77646829 user32!_fnDWORD+0x2d 00000000`7786b538 00000000`77781225 ntdll!KiUserCallbackDispatcherContinue+0x0 00000000`7786b540 00000000`7763cbfa user32!ZwUserDestroyWindow+0xa 00000000`7786b548 000007fe`f58aaf96 explorerframe!CAddressBand::CloseDW+0x31 00000000`7786b550 000007fe`f58ab07e explorerframe!CBandSite::_ReleaseBandItemData+0x2e 00000000`7786b558 000007fe`f58ac847 explorerframe!CBandSite::_Close+0x5a 00000000`7786b560 000007fe`f58abdab explorerframe!CNavBar::CloseDW+0x1f 00000000`7786b568 000007fe`f58ad989 explorerframe!CExplorerFrame::_DestroyFRAMETOOLBARITEM+0x19 00000000`7786b570 000007fe`fbe50c04 comctl32!DSA_EnumCallback+0x48 00000000`7786b578 000007fe`fbe50c3f comctl32!DSA_DestroyCallback+0x13 00000000`7786b580 000007fe`f58ac7e9 explorerframe!DSA_DestroyCallback+0x4d 00000000`7786b588 000007fe`f58ad944 explorerframe!CExplorerFrame::v_WndProc+0x9b3 00000000`7786b590 000007fe`f5841b44 explorerframe!CImpWndProc::s_WndProc+0x91 00000000`7786b598 00000000`77649bd1 user32!UserCallWinProcCheckWow+0x1ad 00000000`7786b5a0 00000000`776498da user32!DispatchMessageWorker+0x3b5 00000000`7786b5a8 000007fe`f58504b0 explorerframe!CExplorerFrame::FrameMessagePump+0x436 00000000`7786b5b0 000007fe`f5854925 explorerframe!BrowserThreadProc+0x180 When did the problem start and did the start of the problem coincide with any software change including installing a Windows update? Is there any third party software common to all systems? Can you supply some more dump files including some from another system?

Please run this fixit to check the result. http://support.microsoft.com/mats/windows_file_and_folder_diag/en-usNiki Han TechNet Community Support