There's a possibility to find the direct cause of this without test and trials:
Application & System.
Once the crash happens, go here and see the most recent logs in those two categories. Could possibly tell you exactly what's messing up.
(the logs may be a bit confusing, but you can find info relevant enough, and post a picture of which one it may be, if it doesn't say exactly what app/task is causing the crash...)
You can run this batch file I created on your desktop and the last 100 entries to system and application will be generated on your desktop.
Event_viewer_Application_and_System.bat
Sorry for the delay. I had to hunt around a bit.
I found out that K-Lite was causing the crashing. It had something called the "Icaros ThumbnailProvider" that was enabled in it. What the hell that does, I have no idea.
I uninstalled it and the taskbar ceased crashing, but it still hesitates playing mp4 video, as if it's looking for the codec to play it, which should be located in VLC itself, so something else may be going on. At least it's not as bad as it used to be.
I now find that there's really no need to install these 3rd party codec packages when most video and audio software out there comes with it's own codecs, preinstalled.
Not only that, but VLC will play a good majority of video and audio without a Codec. I do see you have a boat ton of third-party Codecs installed and that may be the reason as to why you have MP4 issues. If this were me, I'd first do a system restore and the go into Autoruns and delete the third-party Codecs. Or at least disable them first by unticking the box and see what happens. Keep in mind that Windows comes pre-installed with certain Codecs already. Here's what I have and I believe they're all default Windows Codecs. So don't disable or delete those.
The KLite Codec pack was more popular in the XP days. Now it's really not needed. Not only that, but it can and will cause trouble (as it did for me back in the day) and I should have mentioned that, but Codecs can be laced with malware as well.
I also uninstalled VLC using Revo and re-installed it (to the latest version) and that also seems to have improved things.
It wasn't even opening the right mouse click menu but just double-clicking on the VLC icon for the mp4 file in question that would cause this. Now, only some of the mp4 files hesitate while others play with no issue. Not sure what's doing that but I can live with it for now.
No more explorer.exe and taskbar crashes at all which was my main concern.
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