"Finally, just yesterday, I decided I was going to find the solution and fix the problem at any cost and pass on my findings. Note that this is a fairly clean install of Windows 7, so the one thing that I never considered (duh) was that the problem is being caused by something that is in my original setup once I got everything I use installed on my computer. Please note that if you have not tried anything yet, please see the bottom of this article first.
Symptoms: Windows Explorer crashes. This also usually includes Start; Computer, Control, Panel and more. The computer just hangs trying to display but you can’t click on, or see anything and you have to X out of it and reboot to get it to load again.
Solution: there is a good chance that something you installed added what is known as a “shell extension” and it is causing the crash. If you have ever right clicked on a file or folder and saw extra program specific options, for example WinZip or CCleaner, that is a shell extension. You need to isolate and remove that shell extension." Fixing the Windows Explorer crash or freeze in Windows 7
Symptoms: Windows Explorer crashes. This also usually includes Start; Computer, Control, Panel and more. The computer just hangs trying to display but you can’t click on, or see anything and you have to X out of it and reboot to get it to load again.
Solution: there is a good chance that something you installed added what is known as a “shell extension” and it is causing the crash. If you have ever right clicked on a file or folder and saw extra program specific options, for example WinZip or CCleaner, that is a shell extension. You need to isolate and remove that shell extension." Fixing the Windows Explorer crash or freeze in Windows 7
