Windows 10 Explorer and Start Menu Locking up every 15 minutes

Hello, everyone

I just clean installed the Windows 10 AU update on the 4th of August because I was a victim of the classic shell Trojan on August 2nd. Now ever since I reinstalled the Windows 10 AU update, Windows Explorer and my entire task bar/start menu freeze on me every 15 minutes. When happens I cannot open the start menu or click any of my icons. The only temporary fix is killing explorer and restarting it. I am really confused why this is happening because none of this occurred with the 1511 November update. I have 16 GB of RAM, A 2 TB Hard Drive and a Nvidia 950 GTX Graphics Card. It happens with UWP apps like Sonic Dash and Win32 ones like VLC.

If anyone knows anything about this or if you are experiencing this please let me know
Thank you for all of the help I appreciate it. :)

topazcat said:

Hello, everyone

I just clean installed the Windows 10 AU update on the 4th of August because I was a victim of the classic shell Trojan on August 2nd. Now ever since I reinstalled the Windows 10 AU update, Windows Explorer and my entire task bar/start menu freeze on me every 15 minutes. When happens I cannot open the start menu or click any of my icons. The only temporary fix is killing explorer and restarting it. I am really confused why this is happening because none of this occurred with the 1511 November update. I have 16 GB of RAM, A 2 TB Hard Drive and a Nvidia 950 GTX Graphics Card. It happens with UWP apps like Sonic Dash and Win32 ones like VLC.

If anyone knows anything about this or if you are experiencing this please let me know
Thank you for all of the help I appreciate it. :)

Hi topazcat and welcome to Tenforums.

Sorry to hear you got caught on that infection. For future, or anyone else reading this thread, a fix is demonstrated in this thread:
Audacity & Classic Shell Download Server Hacked by PeggleCrew.

Now, on to your problem:
Have you run SFC /scannow?
SFC Command - Run in Windows 10 - Windows 10 Forums

If you get a result other than "no integrity violations found", please run it up to three times, with reboots in-between, making sure Fast Startup has been turned off first.
Fast Startup - Turn On or Off in Windows 10 - Windows 10 Forums

If, after three scans you still have problems, please try the DISM tool:
DISM - Repair Windows 10 Image - Windows 10 Forums
.

topazcat said:

Okay I ran SFC/ Scannow Three times and turned off fast startup. Each time I ran SFC it said no integrity violations found. My system still locks up though. I notice it more when notifications in the right hand corner are supposed to pop up on the screen and they don't like when playing a song with VLC. What should I do next? Thanks

Okay. Let's leave Fast Startup off for now.

Open an Administrative Command Prompt by right-clicking the Start button, and enter

Code:

Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /CheckHealth

After it's finished, type

Code:

Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /ScanHealth

Please report the results, or post a screenshot of the window.
See here for the tut:
DISM - Repair Windows 10 Image - Windows 10 Forums

I know you said it happened when using VLC Player - have you uninstalled it at this point?

A fresh install of VLC didn't work. This is a strange one. You're sure all your drivers are up-to-date? Have you checked in Device Manager, right-clicking one by one, your sound and video devices, and checking online for updates? I'm not sure what else to do. It was working fine before you clean installed W10 - very strange. Sorry I'm not helping much, am I....

TopazCat, where did you download VLC from? If you got it from the Microsoft Store, it should be OK, or if you got it from the official site, VideoLAN - VLC: Official site - Free multimedia solutions for all OS! it should be OK.

If you got it anywhere else, that could be your problem, but not necessarily.

Edit: The same thing for Sonic Dash or anything else you got from anywhere but the official site and/or the Store.