I have a new Asus G1 laptop (Intel Core2DuoT7300 with 2 gigs of RAM) with Vista Home Premium (regularly updated) on it. I have a timer program that came with a 2007 version of QuickBooks Premium I bought at the end of last year and that I loaded onto the Asus this past summer after I got the Asus. The timer program is QuickBooks Pro Timer, ver. 8. The timer program looks like it did when I bought my first version of QuickBooks in 1997. I suspect Intuit has not substantially updated the program since then.

Anyway, after much trial and error, I found that the timer program, even running in XP SP2 compatibility mode under Vista, corrupts Windows Explorer after three to five hours of operation. The Windows digital time disappears from the lower righthand corner of the screen, the icons on the Windows task bar at the bottom of the screen begin to glow brightly, and eventually begin to disappear into the lower lefthand corner of the screen. If I let it go long enough, the restart/shutdown button accessed through the Windows "Start" button becomes unresponsive (although the "Sleep" button does not). Eventually, all the programs stop working and the system freezes. If I hit "alt-ctrl-del," the options screen for locking the computer, starting "Task Manager" and other tasks comes up. If I choose the restart option on that screen (the arrow on the red button in the lower righthand corner), I can restart the machine and the reboot removes the problems for a while (sometimes for less than three hours). If I wait too long, even that option will not work.

On occasion, by double clicking in the lower righthand corner where the digital clock used to be, Windows would respond by giving me a message that "Windows Explorer has stopped working" and that it was looking for a repair. Then it would restart Windows Explorer (without shutting down the programs) and things would go back to normal for a while (sometimes for less than two hours). That was the easiest fix, but I could not always get it to work.

I searched online for solutions for the problem under the "Windows Explorer has stopped working" error message but did not find anything like what I was experiencing. This happened on three different high-end Sony Vaio laptops (with Intel Core2Duo T7200 chips, 2 gigs of RAM and Windows Vista Business edition on them) that I bought and used, trading each one in under the warranty because of this problem over the course of three months. I finally gave up on the Vaios and took the Asus in trade (taking a loss of about $400). I thought the Sonys had a heat problem. Sony Repair could not duplicate the problem so it could not fix or diagnose it. None of the tech guys I showed the frozen screen to recognized it or knew what to do about it.

There are two other Vista laptops used by other folks in my workplace, neither of which experiences this problem, and neither of which has the timer program installed on it. Quickbooks offered no solutions and does not offer an upgrade of the timer. I finally stopped using the timer on the Vista for a day, keeping track of my time manually. The problem did not occur. The next day, I used the timer but turned it off when I did not need it running. The problem reappeared.

I now operate the timer on another laptop (with XP SP2 on it) and do not use it on the Vista laptop. That solved the problem. The XP machine runs the program without a hitch. I had used all of the programs I am using on the Vista on the XP machine for several months without a problem.

Vista owners should be aware that incompatible programs that run on Vista (so that you do not know they are incompatible) may cause Vista to freeze, even if you change the programs' "compatibility" settings. I hope this post helps someone else solve this problem without blaming the hardware, as I did, and without losing as much time as I did to the problem.

Originally Posted by dhaney23

I recently started having problems with the Windows Explorer after picking up some sort of bug that Norton does not recognize. Windows pop up that say it has stopped working and then that it is restarting. After this, Programs seem to run fine regardless, but the taskbar and desktop icons are continuously disappearing and reappearing. Any spyware protection or fix for this would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

Did you happen to find a solution to your problem? A friend is having the same problem with his computer, so i would appreciate if you can share your solution.

Thanks

could be a hardware not compatable with vista, or a software program such as some burning software or sonic software that also not compatable with vista.
Check all of the hardware and software that you have to see if its all compatable with vista.
Also if your are able to download and run the windows upgrade advisor.

i get the error msg "Windows explorer has stopped working".. with a error Stackhash_1703.. pl help

Having problem with windows vista, whenever the computer is being turned on, and already logged on to the user name, there is a mesage coming up continuously "windows explorer has stop working" then it will be changed to " windows explorer is restarting", its also happening on safe mode, and already tried running startup repair but it didnt resolve the issue... is there any fix for this one?!

in all my years involved in forums, it is always amazing folks want help with the computer, and yet never reveal what the computer configuration is.
computers are like cars, all different.
the forum adminstrator should include a box to enter computer details.
computing.net and mr. eds computer help are 2 good examples

Originally Posted by kjanx

in all my years involved in forums, it is always amazing folks want help with the computer, and yet never reveal what the computer configuration is. computers are like cars, all different. the forum adminstrator should include a box to enter computer details. computing.net and mr. eds computer help are 2 good examples

Thanks for this good suggestion. I'm looking into you request seriously and its a good one. We can look into implementing this soon on the forums.

Originally Posted by nonama

Having problem with windows vista, whenever the computer is being turned on, and already logged on to the user name, there is a mesage coming up continuously "windows explorer has stop working" then it will be changed to " windows explorer is restarting", its also happening on safe mode, and already tried running startup repair but it didnt resolve the issue... is there any fix for this one?!

This describes your problem and recommends doing a system restore if you cannot remove the third-party programs (or spyware) causing it:

Error message when you log on to Windows Vista: "Windows Explorer has stopped working"

Yeah i have seen this and heard of this happening on a lot of pc's.i dont think there is an easy fix to (well not one i have found yet)im guessing the only way you can resolve it is by doing a system restore.thats if you can get in fast enoungh cause it just takes over the pc

I dont think its a virus so going in safe mode doesnt really work

let us know how you get on

Cheers

Ps download belarck and lets see what spec your pc is

I too am having a problem with Windows Explorer not working. I got my husband a brand-new HP desktop at Costco; the computer is flawless, but the operating system? I'll stick with XP, thankyouverymuch. I keep getting that annoying pop-up that says windows isn't working. Then I get directed to the Microsoft page with the download that's supposed to fix things. one problem: It doesn't. Then I get another pop=up that says the files I downloaded don't work on this computer. I've read other blogs about this, and they say we'll have to wait until SP1 for it to be fixed.

Vista's pretty, but it's not worth a plugged nickel, IMO.

Hi
I have a new Dell Inspiron 530 (few days old) with Vista Home Premium.
Very frequently Windows Explorer crashes and tries to restart.
The fix is given on screen about installing update KB938979. I already have this update, I have also removed it and installed the update again but still same problem.

Event viewer shows the following

Faulting application Explorer.EXE, version 6.0.6000.16549, time stamp 0x46d230c5, faulting module SHELL32.dll, version 6.0.6000.16513, time stamp 0x4681c95d, exception code 0xc0000005, fault offset 0x0014608a, process id 0x13e8, application start time 0x01c82480f67b1809.

Any ideas before I get onto Dell as I don't hold put much hope that they will sort it for me other than a restore to factory settings!!
Thanks in advance

Steve