Intermittent Windows 11 Explorer.exe hangs

I've been fighting this explorer.exe hangs problem for about 6 months, no help from Windows forum, except sfc, dism, create new profile, clean boot and clean Windows 11 install. Nothing worked problem still occurs. Change graphic cards, no go. I have 3 apps on all my PC builds: Start11, Fences6 and Deskscapes, I have 4 other PCs I'm updating to Windows 11 for my family members. My PC was the only one with the problem. By accident I caused another PC, that was working fine, to start intermittent hangs of explorer.exe by adding a second monitor. I disable the second monitor on both PCs with the problem and that resolved the problem, but I do need my second monitor. I'm asking about Deskscape, because I noticed right before the hangs occur, in the Event Viewer there was a MiniDump file created. I used windbg to see if it would shed a light on the problem, I don't understand about 95% of what it shows, but every occurrence is a Memory_Management (1a) problem and under Process_Name it always shows DSHost.exe. I've run memtest86 several times, no problem, WD ssd diagnostics, no problem and intel CPU diagnostics, no problems. It's not a major problem, just annoying, because when it does happen and I click on my desktop it does a windows explorer restart. Is this a known problem and if so is there a work around. I have the latest version of Deskscape11, Start11 and Fences6.

I'm running the latest version of Windows 11 Pro, 24h2, Build 26100.6899 currently. I have an Asus Mobo ROG Strix Z890-E, and Intel CPU Ultra 7 265K, and 128GB Memory, and a Radeon RX9060-XT Graphics Card with 16GB Memory.

Any help would be appreciated.

Gordon

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Hello,
Sorry to hear you are having issues. No currently there is no specific Explorer hang issue reported linked directly to Deskscape11. Perhaps, you should do the uninstall, reboot and reinstall latest version on Deskscapes11, Start11 and Fences 6, just to clear out if there is corrupted installed files. Try that and report back.

Thank you,
Basj,
Stardock Community Assistant.

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I've already tried that, and I thought it worked, but this time it took 2 days before explorer froze again. I did notice that, using start 11 and windows setup, by hiding the taskbar on the secondary monitor that it took several days for the hang to occur, but it still occurred. All the updated versions were installed after the clean install of Window 11. Microsoft was at a loss as well, after working with an "MVP" for 3 weeks, he just won't respond to any more questions. I'll keep looking for a solution, it's been over 6 months now and I haven't given up.

Thank you too,

Gordon

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Just to be sure, when the explorer froze up, does it working again fast, after sometime or you need to reboot or restart explorer.exe to resolved it?

Thank you,

Basj,
Stardock Community Assistant

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Two different ways. The animations freeze and if I click anywhere on either monitor they both go blank and next animation shows up, and whatever I was doing is the way it was before restart. And the second way, not very often but it has happened once or twice, the restart goes into a loop where it continues to restart and the only way I can stop it is a hard power down and PC reboot. That's only happened two times that I can recall.

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For the first one. Try changing these settings. The Quality slider setting and the Video support setting (Red box below)

also these one.

For the second one I am not sure that is due to Deskscapes. What make you think that is due to Deskscapes?

Thank you,

Basj,
Stardock Community Assistant

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Under performance, that's the setting I already had. I changed the setting under the advanced tab, now I'll wait to see if that helps. As far as the second problem, I really don't know if that was caused by Deskscape. It only happened twice and a while back, but I just thought I'd mention it. The first problem, however, keeps showing the DSHost.exe as the process_name in windbg. I only found out about that diagnostic tool recently, that's how I found out to analyze dump files. Thanks again for the settings, I'll let you know if it helps. I set it the way you suggested on both my PCs with dual monitors.

Gordon

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