Explorer.exe crashes Exception code: 0xc0000409

Hello,

I have been having explorer.exe crashing on me a couple of times now. I don't know what is causing this and I have searched online for answers; but, came up empty. I am hoping you can help me.

Here is what I've noticed:
1) It first happened when I right-click on the start button to bring up the context menu,then when I click on the start button.
2) The screen doesn't turn black/blink; but, the start menu would hang/close and the taskbar would refresh.
3) It doesn't happen every day, it seems to happen every other day for some reason.

My computer is a 64-bit Windows 10 Pro version 1809 (OS Build: 17763.253). I have attached a picture of event viewer about the explorer.exe crash info. If there is anything else that you need, please let me know.

Thank you

Thank you EyeInTheSky for looking at this. Yes, Explorer.exe has been reported. It happened again a couple of minutes ago when hitting the print Screen button on the keyboard to capture the Reliability History report. It was supposed to open the Snip & Sketch app; but, didn't. Resetting the app fix that problem. However, all the other times (as I mentioned in the first post), I was not hitting the Print Screen button. So, something else is causing it to crash. Attached is the Reliability Report of Explorer.exe.

First job is to rum chkdsk on the hard drive to ensure that isnt the cause

Thank you EyeInTheSky and Samuria for the help/suggestions. I did what you two provided; however, Explorer.exe still crashes. Since, I haven't posted a few days, here what happened:

1) Ran chkdsk and found no errors

Code:

TimeCreated : 1/14/2019 9:16:32 PM
Message     : 
              
              Checking file system on C:
              The type of the file system is NTFS.
              Volume label is Windows 10 Pro.
              
              A disk check has been scheduled.
              Windows will now check the disk.                         
              
              Stage 1: Examining basic file system structure ...
                134912 file records processed.                                                        
              
              File verification completed.
                3819 large file records processed.                                   
              
                0 bad file records processed.                                     
              
              
              Stage 2: Examining file name linkage ...
                182 reparse records processed.                                      
              
                199184 index entries processed.                                                       
              
              Index verification completed.
                0 unindexed files scanned.                                        
              
                0 unindexed files recovered to lost and found.                    
              
                182 reparse records processed.                                      
              
              
              Stage 3: Examining security descriptors ...
              Cleaning up 952 unused index entries from index $SII of file 0x9.
              Cleaning up 952 unused index entries from index $SDH of file 0x9.
              Cleaning up 952 unused security descriptors.
              Security descriptor verification completed.
                32137 data files processed.                                           
              
              CHKDSK is verifying Usn Journal...
                34637816 USN bytes processed.                                                           
              
              Usn Journal verification completed.
              
              Stage 4: Looking for bad clusters in user file data ...
                134896 files processed.                                                               
              
              File data verification completed.
              
              Stage 5: Looking for bad, free clusters ...
                112306977 free clusters processed.                                                       
              
              Free space verification is complete.
              
              Windows has scanned the file system and found no problems.
              No further action is required.
              
               487755775 KB total disk space.
                38202932 KB in 94343 files.
                   73720 KB in 32138 indexes.
                       0 KB in bad sectors.
                  251211 KB in use by the system.
                   65536 KB occupied by the log file.
               449227912 KB available on disk.
              
                    4096 bytes in each allocation unit.
               121938943 total allocation units on disk.
               112306978 allocation units available on disk.
              
              Internal Info:
              00 0f 02 00 1c ee 01 00 d4 dd 03 00 00 00 00 00  ................
              79 00 00 00 3d 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  y...=...........
              
              Windows has finished checking your disk.
              Please wait while your computer restarts.

2) Did a clean boot and after 2 days explorer.exe started crashing again. Restarted back to normal startup.

3) Follow DavidMCandy suggestions for Re-register the Shell's Registry Entries (provided by the link EyeInThe Sky shared). It found some errors: 1) Couldn't connect to DLL server or 2) File not found. Although, since it as an old threat, it might not be a issue as stated in #4

4) Ran sfc /scannow as well as Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /CheckHealth without any errors. Picture included.

Now, the last time Explorer.exe crash, I had the control panel to look at the reliability history when it happened and the control panel close. When I look at the reliability history afterwards, it reported the problem; however, the problem event name is APPCRASH. Picture is also included.

Thank you.

OK, now it's all making sense. I did customize the Start Layout; but, I did not use the Group Policy Editor to change it. I used the PowerShell command to remove all Windows Store Apps except the store as followed in this post when doing a clean install. Skip the Group Policy Editor part. Do you think using the PowerShell command (without the .xml file), would still cause Explorer.exe to crash?

Hello EyeInTheSky and others.

I know I haven't posted in this thread in a while (2 weeks); but, I wanted to give you an update on what I have learned/done. I looked through some post online and was trying to figure out why explorer.exe was crashing. Every solution I have tried didn't work. Every few days, explorer.exe would crash. I then thought maybe, it wasn't the startLayout at all; but, some other setting in the Group Policy Editor that caused Explorer.exe to act up. Last week, I went through almost all the setting I changed in Group Policy Editor back to default. Sure enough... a week has gone by and no more explorer.exe crash.

Now I am in the process of restoring (one by one) the setting I changed in Group Policy Editor to pinpoint the explorer.exe crash. Finger cross. I will update this thread when I find the culprit (hopefully).