Windows explorer keeps loading endlessly or thumbnails stop working randomly. It fixes itself and restarts.
Windows explorer keeps loading endlessly or thumbnails stop working randomly. It fixes itself and restarts.
She's been facing problems with her Windows 10 setup for about a year, especially after several updates. The Explorer sometimes behaves oddly—folders keep loading in the top bar indefinitely (screenshot 1), and file previews don't appear at all (screenshot 2). These issues seem to happen occasionally, not always together. I've cleared the thumbnail cache multiple times without success. Sometimes it fixes itself, other times it persists for days, even after rebooting Windows. I ran chkdsk but didn’t find anything unusual (screenshot 3). The S.M.A.R.T. check also returned no errors. I’m frustrated and want to understand the cause before deciding to reinstall. Thanks for your help!
Explorer and explorer.exe use extensions to fetch thumbnails and handle right-click options. The problem likely stems from software altering these settings. There’s no built-in panel for managing extensions—only the Microsoft tool Autoruns. You can download it, run it, and check what processes load at the explorer level. Disable it if needed by visiting https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinte...s/autoruns.
You might have to execute it with administrative privileges. Ensure Microsoft entries remain enabled.
I completed that task. Eliminated many non-essential items. The context menu stopped working entirely. After reinstalling Windows 10, it fixed for a few days. Then the issue returned—SSD was dead or another problem might be involved?