Table of Contents
To Learn How to Resolve File Explorer Not Responding Issue
As a matter of fact, File Explorer Not Responding is a very common issue in windows machines. Windows Explorer is an amazing feature that lets you navigate and manipulate files using a graphical interface. The initial launch of the feature came with Windows 95. explorer.exe is also responsible for the process of the desktop, taskbar, and other system interfaces.
If the following feature stops working for some reason, many other features also behave differently. Windows software is built upon the old software of its previous version. This means bugs and features of 20 years old are still present in your latest windows update.
This is because a lot of people do not upgrade their computers and would still want to use the latest software of Microsoft. This makes Microsoft in a very uncomfortable situation of dragging their old software, And because of that, you will face many issues. But do not worry, Fixing “File Explorer Not Responding” can be a minute issue and gets resolved easily.
Restart File Explorer in Task Manager
1) Right-click on the windows icon on the left-bottom corner of your screen. In the event that you can’t click the windows icon. You can press the Alt + Shift + Escape key together. This will bring a blue screen with a bunch of options.
From that point, you have to click on the task manager option. Doing so will open a dialogue box with apps that are currently running in your background. You need to find Windows Explorer in the app lists.
And select by clicking on the app, Once selected, click on the Restart button on the right-bottom of the dialogue box. This will force the reboot of the file explorer, And any issues might resolve automatically.
When you do the following your taskbar or the back margin will disappear for a few seconds. Sometimes this may take some time. but do not worry about most issues surrounding “File Explorer Not Responding ” gets resolved with this trick only.
2) Restart Your Computer
Before we move forward with our next trick, I would advise you to do the following to fix the issue with windows explorer. Windows have a lot of bugs and issues than other OS, A reason for that I have explained earlier.
This means that the developer is aware of these bugs, And they have developed programs that can automatically resolve issues.
In any case, they come only when your PC is in desperate need of help. Like when the memory of the machine is crashed, or any other hardware issue. But you can also trigger the auto repair system just by restarting your machine. Yes, Just a quick restart can solve your issue.
On the off chance that you can’t restart your PC on the grounds that the taskbar not working. You can press Alt + Ctrl + Del together to make a blue screen appear. From here, You can see the restart option in the bottom-right of your screen.
Restart the File Explorer using the Command Prompt
If you face any difficulties following the above methods. You can use the command prompt to restart the file explorer. This is similar to restart through the 1st method, But you are using the old-school commands to do some changes.
1) Firstly, start the command prompt from the Menu. Alternatively, press the Windows button + R together to make the RUN dialogue box appear and enter cmd.exe.
2) Then, once you have open the command prompt, Enter the following command taskkill /f /im explorer.exe. The command will kill the process by stopping explorer.exe.
After using the command, The background of your desktop will go blank. But do not worry, And don’t close the command prompt either.
3) Now, Enter the following command start explorer.exe. This will start the explorer.exe again. All the taskbar icons that disappear earlier will be visible again to you.
If you have recently upgraded or downgraded your windows, This may be the reason for the ‘File Explorer Not Responding’ issue. Whenever you upgrade your windows version, A new set of settings get applied this may at times conflict with your old settings.
As I have said earlier in the post windows software is not written completely new and is based upon the old version. The bugs that you may face could be because of the new windows version.
If that’s the case simply upgrading or restoring your windows version will fix your problem. It is fairly easy to do so. I will guide you on both, How to upgrade as well as to restore the windows version so far.
Upgrading your windows version
1) Click on the Windows Start button, And search for Settings. Here, Find the Update & security and click on it.
2) Once you are there, click on Windows Update, And after you can click on the Check for Updates options here.
3) Then, you’ll see there if any updates are available for your machine, If there is, click on the Update button and open file explorer once the update is finished.
Restoring your windows version
If your machine has the system restore feature, You can easily restore your windows to an earlier version.
1) search ‘create a system restore‘ in your START menu. And click OK for the appropriate match.
2) Then, once you have to open the System properties dialog, you can click on the System Restore button here. For people who see gray buttons and are unable to click. It is because your setting is off for system restore.
If the above-stated methods don’t work. You can follow this method to fix your ‘File Explorer Not Responding’ issue.
As stated earlier Windows explorer can get corrupted or overused in that case this may cause an issue. Simply clearing the file explorer history will solve your issue.
1) First up all, open the RUN dialogue box by pressing the Windows + R button. Now enter Control, And click OK.
2) Change your viewing mode to large, If it’s set to any other.
3) Now choose the file explorer option, And choose the Clear button option in the privacy section.
4) Now restart your computer, And see if Windows Explorer is working.
