New
#1
OpenWith crashes File Explorer, Apps & Features blank
Like many Win10 users, I'm getting used to having to reset my file associations occasionally, for example, getting PDF files to open with Acrobat instead of Edge.
Recently I'm seeing some related problems. Sometimes when I right-click a file and select Open with, Windows Explorer crashes. And when I open Apps & Features, it comes up blank.
After running NOD32 and Antimalware, I ran sfc /scannow and DISM, but they didn't find any problems.
To solve these problems, I opened the registry to
COMPUTER\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FileExts. Then I found the troublesome extension and looked at its OpenWithList entries. I found
(1) some entries with exe files that were not on my PC
(2) some entries that made no sense
(3) some entries like abcd
After backing up that section of the registry, I deleted some of the first two types of entries. In most cases, that solved the OpenWith crash. In other cases, I was able to open "Choose default apps by file type" and set the association there.
Sometimes the Registry edits fail to solve the problem, and Apps & Features and Choose default apps... both come up blank.
This has happened on both of my systems, which are very similar but used with different software and devices.
Any idea how this happened or how I can deal with it?