[P/J]

Hello, for starters: I'm really not sure how these problems started. It probably happened after one of many BSoDs that I had over the last couple of days.

 

My problem now, practically, is that I can't open an Explorer window. The desktop and taskbar work, and the process is running in the task manager, but whenever I try to open a folder or just bring up an Explorer window in any way, the process stops, my taskbar & desktop blink and explorer.exe starts right up but no window is opened.

The reliability monitor says that UIRibbon.dll is at fault, which kind of makes sense since I can still use the file choosing pop-up you get when you upload something through a website or when you're selecting a directory to save to, 'cause the ribbon isn't present in those windows.

 

What also happened when I first encountered the explorer-can't-open problem is that I've been logged out of some Windows programs, for example Steam, Origin and OneDrive. Not Skype, though.

 

I later found out that creating another account (I tried a non-admin local one) makes explorer launchable, although only on that account.
If I set my primary account to non-admin, the problem persists, but the Event Viewer lists less errors, I think. The ones I get as an admin are ID 10005, 7001, 10010, 10016.

 

Safe mode doesn't help, but states that an app (that might be called "Welcome" or something like that, I'm not sure because my language isn't set to English but I can check if it's important) can't be opened using the built-in administrator whenever I try to start up an Explorer window. It also said the same thing when I wanted to enter the Settings app, but it did open after I closed the error message.

 

SFC and DISM found nothing. CHKDSK "fixed" something but nothing changed. GPSvc couldn't be started via Services so I found instructions on the web to enable it through the regedit, but it didn't help.

 

Windows has brilliantly defaulted the System Restore Points to disabled so I have nowhere to go back to.

 

In-place upgrade (which was basically supposed to reinstall system files) didn't help. I had it set to keep my applications/programs.

 

No viruses or malware found with Avast and MalwareBytes, that was my first guess.

 

What strikes me the most is the fact that the newly-created account works just fine, it gives me hope that I won't have to do a clean install of Windows to fix this.

 

Any ideas what to do?

I'm not sure what logs to post here, there seems to be a lot of it.

Thanks!

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Hi P/J, and welcome to our forum,

 

Sorry to hear of the problems you have experienced. It sure sounds like you have a corrupted user profile..... and maybe there are other issues as well (as indicated by the recent BSOD)

 

 Here's some suggestions for your consideration:

 

1 Run chkdsk with the r switch from a command prompt with elevated privileges (chkdsk /r) is the command you need... ignore the brackets! This should check your hard drive for consistency and errors, and if it can it will fix them and then restart your computer.

 

2 Next run the Windows Protected System file checker to check that all protected Windows system files are present and correct and in the right locations... if sfc finds any problems it will attempt to fix them without user intervention. (sfc /scannow) is the command you need, restart your computer when it has done its stuff.

 

3 You have already found that creating a new user account works for you, this would be worthwhile as a next step, but make it an admin level account and the copy your stuff across to the new account.... here is a link with more details:

 

http://www.makeuseof...w-user-account/

 

The link refers to Win 8 but it's similar for (Win 10)

 

4 If you don't want to do step 3 or you would prefer a more radical approach then consider a refresh of Win 10.... don't forget to switch on System Restore, as its disabled by default! as you have found.  More details available here:

 

http://windows.micro...t-in-windows-10

 

Post back and let us know how you get on.

regards

paws

[paws]

Hi P/J, and welcome to our forum,

 

Sorry to hear of the problems you have experienced. It sure sounds like you have a corrupted user profile..... and maybe there are other issues as well (as indicated by the recent BSOD)

 

 Here's some suggestions for your consideration:

 

1 Run chkdsk with the r switch from a command prompt with elevated privileges (chkdsk /r) is the command you need... ignore the brackets! This should check your hard drive for consistency and errors, and if it can it will fix them and then restart your computer.

 

2 Next run the Windows Protected System file checker to check that all protected Windows system files are present and correct and in the right locations... if sfc finds any problems it will attempt to fix them without user intervention. (sfc /scannow) is the command you need, restart your computer when it has done its stuff.

 

3 You have already found that creating a new user account works for you, this would be worthwhile as a next step, but make it an admin level account and the copy your stuff across to the new account.... here is a link with more details:

 

http://www.makeuseof...w-user-account/

 

The link refers to Win 8 but it's similar for (Win 10)

 

4 If you don't want to do step 3 or you would prefer a more radical approach then consider a refresh of Win 10.... don't forget to switch on System Restore, as its disabled by default! as you have found.  More details available here:

 

http://windows.micro...t-in-windows-10

 

Post back and let us know how you get on.

regards

paws

[P/J]

Thanks for the quick reply!
I've already tried sfc /scannow and chkdsk /f beforehand (dism too). The /r switch didn't change much. My account is tied to Microsoft so I don't think I can really transfer it to a different one on my PC and I'd rather not do a refresh just yet.

 

Is there anything else I can do?

[paws]

Hi P/J

 My account is tied to Microsoft so I don't think I can really transfer it to a different one on my PC 

 

The account I'm referring to is a user account....  set it up as a local account with admin status and this may do the trick for you.

 

Is there anything else I can do?

 

 

 If the above above doesn't work for you and you can't do a "refresh" then I'd be inclined to use a good disc image you made prior to the problems starting and re-image it.

Regards

paws

[P/J]

Is there anything else I can do?

 

 

 If the above above doesn't work for you and you can't do a "refresh" then I'd be inclined to use a good disc image you made prior to the problems starting and re-image it.

Regards

paws

 

Unfortunately, I don't have one. Was the in-place upgrade (reinstalling system files with Windows 10 Upgrade Tool) supposed to have the same effect? Because I thought that was my best bet and it didn't work.

[paws]

HiP/J

I think you have one badly hosed system....   and if the measures I've already outlined have been followed diligently then may be it's time to take more radical action.

 

however before you do that, you mentioned that you had run chkdsk with the f switch and it had made some changes, so it appears that there was something wrong with the consistency of your hard drive....( If the drive was Ok then there would have been nothing to fix) so I would be inclined to run it again( for t6he third time and again with the r switch. I would also follow with 2 further runs of sfc as often it will be necessary to perform multiple runs with a reboot between each one if a good repair is to be made.

 

you also mention that booting into a new user account works just fine.... so that would tend to confirm that the new user account is the answer... just copy your stuff across from the old account to the new and you may be good to go..... unless you know differently???

 

Regards

paws

[P/J]

I did a refresh of Windows. It worked, but I still get BSoDs/crashes really often (was happening before the refresh, too). Probably gonna have to make a new thread later. But thanks a lot!