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keysofanxiety

macrumors G3
Original poster
Nov 23, 2011
9,539
25,302
Hi all,

Just wondering if anybody's running Windows 10 and has updated to the Anniversary Edition? Almost every system we've supplied is having a problem with File Explorer crashing/refreshing whenever you create some new folders on the desktop, after updating to the AE.

We're talking all systems: HPs, MSIs, ASUS, ACER, Lenovos, Fujitsus, Surface Pros... regardless of whether they were imaged/deployed, or untouched straight out the box. There seems to be no consistency with hardware between the ones having the problem. The only consistency is that they run Windows.

If you're having the issue, the fix is to simply create a new user account and use that instead, then transfer the data from the old account. It's a right pain, but it fixes the issue almost every time (99/100).

Has anybody personally encountered this -- or has anybody got a fix that doesn't mean creating a new user account? We've tried an exhaustive list of things to try and fix the problem... and I mean exhaustive.
 

maflynn

macrumors Haswell
May 3, 2009
73,682
43,740
I'm current and its been rock solid, never has crashed, where as OS X on my iMac has endured a handful of KPs.

I'm running win10 on my iMac and Surface Book.
 
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keysofanxiety

macrumors G3
Original poster
Nov 23, 2011
9,539
25,302
I'm current and its been rock solid, never has crashed, where as OS X on my iMac has endured a handful of KPs.

I'm running win10 on my iMac and Surface Book.

Thank you for the feedback. May I confirm if you upgraded to Anniversary Edition within Win 10, or if you did a fresh install of AE? The problem seems to occur only when upgrading from W10. :)

I just can't figure it out for the life of me. The causes of Windows Explorer crashing/restarting seem to be related to ntdll.dll and cdd.dll, though creating a new user account resolves the problem every time. So it's not something driver related (goodness knows we've tried every driver update possible).

We've been tearing our hair out for months as there's got to be a simpler way to fix it. We've had systems which exhibit the issue on the bench for days, documenting/logging everything we try to fix the issue and then rolling it back. Based on the fact that a new user account fixes the issue, and the problem occurs on fresh/out-of-the-box systems after updating, we suspect it's some reg setting in HKCU; that said,we don't really know what impact a new user account affects HKLM. Anyway, I'm rambling, sorry... back to the original question!

Would you be happy to confirm if the AE was an update or a fresh install? :)
 

maflynn

macrumors Haswell
May 3, 2009
73,682
43,740
May I confirm if you upgraded to Anniversary Edition within Win 10, or if you did a fresh install of AE? The problem seems to occur only when upgrading from W10. :)

Both ;)

On my iMac, I had a lot of trouble with Bootcamp, and upgrading to 1611, so I did a fresh install of 1611.

On my Surface Book, I opted for the upgrade as it came with the old version when I bought it
 
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keysofanxiety

macrumors G3
Original poster
Nov 23, 2011
9,539
25,302
Both ;)

On my iMac, I had a lot of trouble with Bootcamp, and upgrading to 1611, so I did a fresh install of 1611.

On my Surface Book, I opted for the upgrade as it came with the old version when I bought it

Thank you Mike, you've been really helpful!

Just to confirm: on your SurfaceBook, if you create a new folder on the desktop, then create another folder on the desktop, then create a folder within one of those folders, at no point during this does File Explorer or the taskbar crash and reopen, or freeze the system for 10 seconds?
 

keysofanxiety

macrumors G3
Original poster
Nov 23, 2011
9,539
25,302
Let me double check that and I'll update this thread shortly with the results.

I don't have the SB handy

Hi Mike, I'm sorry to bother you about this again (wasn't sure if you'd forgotten about me :oops:).

May I confirm if your SB exhibits the same issues? You can verify this by creating a number of folders on the desktop and then creating a few sub-folders within one of them. If File Explorer doesn't crash/reload at any point, it'll be fine.

Thank you so much for your help!
 

maflynn

macrumors Haswell
May 3, 2009
73,682
43,740
Hi Mike, I'm sorry to bother you about this again (wasn't sure if you'd forgotten about me :oops:).
No worries

I tried this two different ways.
I right clicked on the desktop, selected new->Folder. I named it Folder 1.
I right clicked on the desktop, selected new->Folder. I named it Folder 2.
Navigated to folder 2, and created a new folder named Folder 2a

Nothing happened (no crash).

Second method - using Filer Explorer
Navigated to c:\Users\<userid>\Desktop.
Clicked new Folder on the ribbon and created Folder 3
Clicked new Folder on the ribbon and created Folder 4
Navigated to Folder 4 and created a new folder called Folder 4a

To summarize, I can create multiple folders on the desktop and then subfolders and not incur any issues
 
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keysofanxiety

macrumors G3
Original poster
Nov 23, 2011
9,539
25,302
To summarize, I can create multiple folders on the desktop and then subfolders and not incur any issues

You've been more than helpful, thank you again. I'm massively reassured that it doesn't happen for every AE system, as you've kindly confirmed; that means I won't have to worry about thousands of upcoming tech calls about this. :)

On another note, the fix of a new user account hasn't worked on a remote session I just had. 3 new accounts and still exhibited the same problem, but only when accessing certain folders on the original user account to copy over user data. So collecting to reimage.

For anybody reading/having the same issue, I'll update this thread when we find a fix, now that this workaround isn't effective.
 
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