Windows 11 file explorer cant open nor open any desktop file folders

rosiesdad · 29 May 2023

Since there are 3 people with individual tasks, 1. Me to make music videos, and MP3's at the Pastors direction. 2. the person (most important of us 3) who puts the service in ProPresenter for the congregation to view during worship. 3. someone who uploads the Service to either Facebook or Youtube.
The Boss(Pastor), who invited the "expert" to help/instruct our person who works with ProPresenter was working together with our person and this happened. There is no blame, we didnt know that Mac's and PC's act differently with ProPresenter and files. She showed us this, this is how we do it on a Mac.
We will get a back up drive to image to, Its been on my list. Just been too busy. When you have volunteer help, you get what you get..... sort of.

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All folders existed on the desktop exactly the same before the "expert help" came. We just can not open them.

Megahertz · 29 May 2023

Did you read my post #10?

rosiesdad · 29 May 2023

Yes I read #10
Due to my time commitments I cant get to the computer for a few days

dalchina · 29 May 2023

Thank you for your reply.

topgundcp · 31 May 2023

File Explorer is one of the core file of Windows. Beside displaying files and folders, there's a lot of activities going on in the background. One problem that might have caused the File Explorer to be broken is the Shell Extensions which third party sofware have added to File Explorer for the right click context menu. Sure, it works for few months but then Windows 11 is doing updates quite often and might have caused the conflict, so I would not rush to blame the lady helper, the worst case is she might cause the Propresenter to break. This is based on my experience with Windows 11. I have added a shell extension to it and sure enough, File Explorer broke even though it worked perfect in Windows 10.
Here's what my suggestion:
1. Download the portable program from ShellExView - Shell Extension Manager For Windows, unzip and copy to a USB drive. connect the USB to the PC then run, Click on Options->Hide Microsoft Extension then Disable them all. Try to open the File Explorer again.
If still not working, Proceed to step 2.
2. Download a light weight version of explorer++ from: Explorer++ - A small and fast file manager for Windows
copy to the USB and run it. This version of explorer won't interfere with any system files so it should work. Navigate to the folders where you have all the video/mp3 files then copy to an external media ie. USB, External hard disk to backup.
3.I never use Propresenter before but out of curiosity, I downloaded a trial version and was able to create a portable version of it (ie. does not require installation). So if you can, Copy the folder where the Propresenter was installed, usually under
C:\Program Files or C:\Program Files(x86) and also under Documents folder, you should have a folder name as Propresenter, this folder contains all the setup and configuration files. Copy those to a healthy PC then try to run it.
If all of the steps above fail then you might start thinking about re-install Windows 10 but at least you have saved all the Videos/Mp3 etc...

NOTE: Since File Explorer is broken, You night have to run those programs from the command prompt (Win+X->Command Prompt). Navigate to the USB that you have the programs saved, type the name of the program then hit <ENTER>

rosiesdad · 08 Jun 2023

Im still following, and still too busy to have time to sit down and work on this. Thank you to all who have shown interest in helping. Eventually we will get there...... I hope

Hearsepilot · 08 Jun 2023

If only there was a Windows 11 help site.

dalchina · 08 Jun 2023

And your wish was of course granted by **BRINK** and others..
Windows 11 Forum

idgat · 08 Jun 2023

rosiesdad said:

Our Church computer got upgraded to Windows 11

Not uncommon (not this problem in particular, but an example of strange and weird malhappenings) when in-situ upgrades are done cf. clean installs

Anyhows, just create a new Desktop shortcut to explorer.exe (it's in the C:\Windows folder) and then pin it to wherever (Taskbar. Start Menu).

Hearsepilot · 08 Jun 2023

dalchina said:

And your wish was of course granted by **BRINK** and others..
Windows 11 Forum

It's a pity it's not used.