This PC icon won't open

Ron6962 · 07 Apr 2021

- - - Updated - - -

Sorry, I forgot to answer your question....yes, I have a restore point, but it was taken "before" I moved moved a lot of files and apps from my old laptop.....which took hours.

- - - Updated - - -

dalchina....you have been so helpful....thank you! The suggestion to check the list of items in Shellexview with MS items filtered out, pointed me to the problem....an incomplete installation of Mozy backup! I uninstalled Mozy and the problem was resolved. Who would have thought? You are a wizard and I appreciate your assistance...this was driving me nuts.
Thank you! Ron

dalchina · 08 Apr 2021

Now, before something else goes wrong...
a. create a schedule to create a System Restore point daily.. (tutorial available)
Whilst SR is considered unreliable, in that it can suddenly fail to complete restoring- and then perhaps work again some weeks or months later, when it works it's great- no effect on personal data.

b. Start a routine patten of disk imaging as is endlessly recommended here. E.g. a periodic (manual or scheduled) backup job to external storage of at least all partitions comprising your O/S - 4 for UEFI typically- e.g. Macrium Reflect (free).

- full backup and restore your PC even if your disk fails.

Ron6962 · 07 May 2021

dalchina....sorry for the delay with this....had to take a few weeks away.....
I tried all the suggestions you have offered, including the Shellexview process.
All to no avail....the This PC icon just will not open to show my disk drives and system folders.
Do you know of any other way to display the disk drives attached? Main C Drive, D DVD Drive, and E backup drive.

dalchina · 07 May 2021

Win key + E opens file explorer, & you can pin a shortcut for file explorer on your task bar, for example..

Try creating a new user for test purposes. Log in as that user, and see if you have the same problem.

As an experiment get Winaero's tweaker (free, very useful - lots of explanation links).

Try 'Test Shell Location' - you can see 'This PC' is selected.

If it works, you should see explorer open at This PC as shown.

-----------------------------------
Try this:
Create a new shortcut containing
explorer.exe shell:MyComputerFolder

Double click that. It should open 'This PC'
-----------------------------------
How do you avoid many of these difficulties?
Before starting to configure a PC and make changes, do 2 things.

a. Set a schedule for a System Restore point to be created daily. (Tutorial)
b. Create your first disk image of all partitions comprsing the O/S using e.g. Macrium Reflect (free/paid) to external storage.
c. As you continue to configure it, keep simple notes and periodically update your image set.

Then, when something goes wrong, you have a reasonable chance of going back to a good state without needing to seek help.

Ron6962 · 07 May 2021

dalchina....my sincere apology....this post was resolved with your help, and closed by me 4 weeks ago. The issue was on a laptop I was restoring for a friend, and I totally forgot about the resolution. I uninstalled a Mozy app which resolved the issue, then he just recently reinstalled it and created the issue again. We have it totally resolved, thanks to your help.

Thanks too for your tips on back-up. I do regularly set restore points when making significant changes to the software on my computer. Since this was a new installation, there were no restore points to go back to. I also use Casper to clone my main hard drive to a separate additional hard drive every few weeks. and....I preach back-up to my friends whom I have helped recover lost data.

Thanks again for your help on this.....would never have learned about the Shellexview which pointed me to the problem.

This PC icon won't open

This PC icon won't open

This PC icon issue