Explorer.exe hanging on shutdown

from WinCustomize Forums
I've had the problem if Explorer.exe hanging on shutdown for a while now and it has taken me quite a while to narrow down what may be the cause. When I shutdown I get the hang dialog box 'end now'type propmt, when I end explorer.exe it shuts down OK. I discovered that Virtual Desktops was the error but only when I had wallpapers on the screens. If I removed the wallpapers the system shuts down without the explorer.exe hanging. Strange I know but so far I believe this to be the cause. Any help would be appreciated.
8,580 views 4 replies
Reply #1 from WinCustomize Forums Top
I've had similar problems when using it. I really do like the idea and use the heck out of it here at work. It also really blows up the memory usage of explorer.exe running on your PC.

You may also see where if you had Windows Explorer running on one desktop and flip from one to another and then back again, that the Windows Explorer has disappeared. I have even seen where the Taskbar becomes unresponsive such that you have to CTRL-ALT-DEL to get the the Task Manager to kill the explorer.exe process.

I hope that someone at Stardock is listening and can resolve this issue.

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Reply #2 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Thanks for replying as I'm glad its just not me. I've experienced all the problems you stated in your response and I also use virtual desktop a lot, in fact it was one of the reasons I bought the product.

Posted via WinCustomize Browser/Stardock Central
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Reply #3 from WinCustomize Forums Top
This problem has been occurring relatively frequently on both Win2K & WinXP for a long time (18-24 months?) and I've never used virtual desktops. I can't say for sure, but I believe the problem is related to WB in some way. Why it's intermittent I don't know. It's non-destructive but a mild annoyance since it seems to inevitably happen when I shutdown or restart, then walk away to do something else for a few minutes, only to come back & find the shutdown hung.

Cheers,
Daiwa
Reply #4 from Stardock Forums Top
I've also had this problem for ages now, and have just been putting up with it. It happens every time on Win2k and occasionally on WinXP. I've found the culprit, and it's WindowFX. If I close WindowFX before shutting down everythings fine, or if I don't run WindowFX at all, my pc shuts down ok every time.
I also run virtual desktops, but I've had no problem with this.
It would be nice if this could be fixed.

Boyron.