Windows 10 File Explorer won’t launch

I have run into this one quite a bit lately, specially on systems that open numerous files daily. If you go to open Windows Explorer and it either does not run or crashed, this will probably fix the issue for you. The biggest issue is to get to an Explorer window to disable the issue.
First thing to try is the following:

  1. Right click on the File Explorer icon on the task bar and choose 'Unpin from Taskbar'.
  2. Press the 'Windows' key and the 'X' key at the same time, then select 'File Explorer' from the list.
  3. Right click the 'Quick Access' link and select 'Options'.
  4. Under the 'General' tab, choose 'Clear' in the 'Privacy‘ section.  This will help clear the File Explorer history.
  5. If you don’t want to have to do this in the future and you don’t care about seeing a list of previously opened files, you can change the option at the top 'Open File Explorer to:' from 'Quick Access' to 'This PC'.
  6. Click the 'OK' button to close the form.
  7. Right click on any blank spot on your desktop and choose 'New > Shortcut'.
  8. Type in 'C:\Windows\Explorer.exe' and then click 'Next'.
  9. Rename the shortcut to 'File Explorer' and then click 'Finish'.
  10. Right click the newly created short cut and choose 'Pin to Task Bar'.

You should be all good to go at this point.

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