Intermittent Windows 11 Explorer.exe hangs

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.

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

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

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.

• 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

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

Hello,

Sorry, but the explorer.exe is still hanging.  I checked the Event Viewer again and, as usual, I get 2 information events and 1 error event with the same date/time stamp.  One of the information events generates the minidump file.  I analyzed the dump file using "windbg", and near the bottom of the analysis, under process name, it always shows "DSHost.exe".

I'm going to try disabling Deskscape service using msconfig, and remove any Deskscape extensions in shell extension manager to see if that helps, and if it doesn't I'll remove Deskscape using Revo-Uninstaller and re-install it again with the setting you suggested.

I find it odd that it's only happening on my 2 PCs with dual monitors.  Three other PCs with single monitors have no problems.  If you have any other suggestion while I'm doing this I would appreciate it.

Gordon

Do know that I run Deskscapes on my dual monitors setup without issue. And, I do believe there are lots Deskscape user out there also ruining two or more monitors. Perhaps, something unique in your system causing the issue.

Would like to suggest to do Clean boot. Refer here: https://support.stardock.com/space/SHC/1346928700/DeskScapes+Clean+Boot. With this we can iron out if there is any conflicting application running in the background.

If that also do not help. Please try purge and reinstall steps as mention here : [Link]. Just make sure to redownload the latest version from your account page. Reboot after the purge. Reinstall and reboot again after the installation.

Try those, test it out and report back here.

Thank you,
Basj,
Stardock Community Assistant.

Thanks again for your help.  I've been fighting this like I said for over 6 months now, with different versions of Start11 and Fences6. Deskscapes11 hasn't had any recent updates for a while, but I'm am running the latest version from my account.  Right now I've completely uninstalled Start11, Fences6 and Deskscapes11.  I did a thorough Uninstall using Revo-Uninstaller.  I Just reinstalled the latest Version of Deskscapes11 from my account and I'm going to run it alone, without Start11 & Fences6 and see if that does anything.  I'm really at a loss, I've run every hardware diagnostic tool I could find.  I'm running DDR4 Memory on one PC and DDR5 on the other.  I'm have an AMD graphics card on one PC and Nvidia Graphics card on the other.  I'll keep trying for as long as I can, I'd really like to find the cause.

I will be trying all your suggestion.  It may take a few days, because the problem is intermittent.  Sometime I'll get it to fail several times a day, sometime every couple of days and once one day short of a week.  Like I said, it's not affecting my apps or anything like that, just irritating when you try closing or opening another app and explorer decides to do a restart on its own.

Really appreciate your help.  If you get wind of any other possible suggestions, I would really appreciate hearing them.

Thanks you Very Much,

Gordon

I'm having almost the exact same problem and it started about a month ago or so. I have reinstalled Windows and the latest software from scratch twice now and the issue comes back just like the OP states above. On my last reinstall, it came back after three days. 

Explorer hangs and crashes when I click on the desktop, then the next set of wallpapers comes up. I am running dual monitor with a playlist and the two monitors have different resoltutions, so maybe that's part of the issue. I have been experimenting with the settings for hardware and scaling and I haven't found a magic combo that alleviates the issue.

It's frustrating because once it starts happening, it seems to get more frequent until it's just unusable.

Sometimes it will run for hours with no problems and sometimes it will freeze up a lot. Sometimes, if I leave it for a very long time, it will hard freeze and I will have to manually reboot with the old power button.

Hi JaSunni,

Sorry to hear you're having the same problem, but it makes me feel better that i"m not the only one.  I've been working on this problem for around 6 month on and off.  I read online that the taskbar sometimes causes the hanging problem, but I checked all my settings and removed the taskbar from my secondary monitor and that didn't help.  I know it has something to do with dual monitors, because when I switched back to a single monitor the problem stopped.

I don't know if you're using Start11 and Fences6, but I've been running for 3 days now without any hanging errors after I did this.  

I completely removed Fences, Start11 and Descscapes using RevoUninstaller to completely remove any trace of all three.  I reinstalled the latest version of Deskscapes, ONLY, and so far I haven't had any more problems.  I also added my taskbar back to my secondary monitor and so far so good.  I'm going to let go for a few more days then I'm going to add Start 11 and see if that has any effect.  Then, if things go well I'll add Fences.  I'm going to keep working on it until I figure something out.   I'll keep you updated on what I come up with.

In the mean time if you have any suggestions, I'd really like to hear them as well.

Thanks for the feedback,

Gordon

I am running Start 11 and WindowBlinds. I removed both and Deskscapes to baseline and make sure everything works okay. I'll add one at a time and stretch out using it in each configuration to isolate. If it's Start 11, at least that's an easy fix. I'd rather have Deskscapes. 

That's what I'm going to do.  If I go error free for a couple more days I'm going to re-install Start 11, but given the choice between the two, I'll keep Deskscapes, I enjoy the animated backgrounds, and also the static backgrounds as well.

From reading a lot online about this trouble I've found a lot of things about Windows 11 and the taskbar being the root of a lot of problems.  So if I do re-install Start 11 I'm going to try tweaking the taskbar settings to see if that helps.  Maybe we're getting close to finding a cause.

Let me know how your plans turn out.

Hello JaSunni,

I have a question for you.  By any chance do you have the time/date display on your desktop displayed from the Deskscapes app?  I asking because I was running error for about 5 days and I decided to add the date/time/cpu & mem display to my desktop.  I've always had it previously displayed so I added again.  Today I got my first hanging error.  I removed the display now I have to watch again.  Let me know if you enabled that option on Deskscapes.  That could help in solving this problem.

Thanks,

Butch

Hello basj,

I have a question that may help me find my hanging problem.  After completely removing Deskscapes, Start11 & Fences 6 and installing latest version of Deskscapes,ONLY, I ran clean for 5 days.  I added the Date/Time/CPU & Mem Usage options to both displays last night and this morning I got my first hanging error.  Since you're not experiencing the problem do you have Start 11 and/or Fences loaded on you displays and since I know you're running Deskscapes, do you have the Date/Time option added to your displays.  I also asked the same question of JaSunni, who is having the same problem that I'm experiencing.  I'm trying to narrow my troubleshooting options and I'd really appreciate your input.  

Thanks,

Butch

Hello again,
Yes, I do have Start11v2, Fences 6 and Deskscape running with Deskscape's Time/Date and CPU load etc display on both of my monitors. But I don't see hang issue. But, not sure if is matter, I don't use deskscape's animated wallpaper. Both of my monitors is showing static wallpaper with different wallpaper on each monitors. Also, sometimes I do note that, if I turn on the Windows setting "Automatically pick an accent color from my background" there are short hang or more like slow responding when the wallpaper change. Other than that, no major hang.

But, do note this is on my Windows 10 system. I don't have dual monitors setup on my Windows 11 VM system.

Thank you,
Basj,
Stardock Community Assistant.

Thanks for the information.  That's one thing I haven't tried.  I'll try making a new Playlist and just put static backgrounds in it and see what happens.  I did notice, as did JaSunni, that the hang usually happens when changing backgrounds.

Ever since I added and removed the Date/Time option the hangs are more frequent now, really adding more confusion to the problem.  Again thanks for the added information.

Just to chip in, I've been trying to narrow down why Explorer hangs whenever I activate my second monitor and currently Deskscapes 11 is the prime suspect.  Normally I run single monitor with static JPG as a wallpaper but when I change Display Settings \ Multi-monitor the second monitor comes on but Explorer hangs (black desktop).

I've got Start11, Fences 6 (currently using the beta), and Deskscapes 11, and removing Deskscapes 11 fixes the problem - I can activate and deactivate the second monitor with no problems.  

I've recently upgraded to Windows 11 25H2 - which actually seems to have fixed an intermittent problem I was having with Start11 taking a long time to display my start menu icons - though it may also be down to the recent 2.5.6 release of Start11.  Start11 is now great.

Had my Deskscapes video codec and other options set as recommended, had tried the full removal and reinstall of Deskscapes but no joy.

I'm using an nVidia 3080Ti with latest drivers as of today (581.42) in to which both my displayport monitors are attached and also have active onboard Intel UHD Graphics 750 (32.0.101.7076) but no monitor plugged into the latter.

The DPI scaling is set to 100% on both monitors.

So I reckon there may be a problem lurking in here with multimonitor support in Deskscapes.  So you aren't alone.

PS. Whatever content distribution network / web caching Stardock is using seems to be having problems in the UK at the moment.  I was unable to download Deskscapes 11 from the Stardock site directly or use ObjectDesktop to install it without first connecting to the US using VPN.  I was getting timeouts and a download rate of around 256kbs on my 80Mbs connection.  After using VPN it flew down.

I kinda agree.  I uninstalled and reinstalled Deskscapes again and just kept one monitor running and it worked great.  I add the Time/Date option, which caused the problem before, but it's been running without errors so far.  Like you, I noticed since updating to Win.11 Version 25H2 things seem to be running a little better.

Another thing that kind of makes me think Deskscapes has a problem with Dual monitors, is because after I did a clean install of Windows 11, I ran error free with dual monitors using Windows 11 slideshow to change backgrounds every 30 Minutes.  Never had one problem with hanging errors. It started again as soon as I added Deskscapes & Start 11.  I'm still tweaking options in Start 11 and Deskscapes to see if anything changes.  I'll keep checking for suggestions and adding what I come up with as well.  Thanks for the information.

Hi Butch,

No, I don't show the time/date. I just upgraded my machine with a new SSD (unrelated) and reinstalled Windows, so sorry for the delay in responding. 

After reinstalling only Deskscapes to isolate this issue, I still see the problem on dual monitors with different resolutions. I'm going to try running with showing the playlist on only one monitor for now and see if that works for me in the interim while Stardock looks into this bug.

Have you filed a support ticket?

Hi JaSunni,

No, I haven't filed a support ticket.  I'm kind of watching for now.  I installed the latest update of Start 11 and I updated the latest Windows 11 Version 25H2 Build 26200.7019 and I haven't had a hanging error so far.  I'm waiting, because the last time I thought the problem cleared, it came back after 1 week so I'm in the wait and see mode right now.

Start11 had mention some of the fixes had something to do with dual monitors, maybe the combination of Start 11 and Deskscapes had something to do with all of this?  Anyway that's the point I'm at right now, wait and see!

Let me know if you've had the opportunity to update Start 11 and if so if that has helped you so far. 

I was having the problem even without Start 11 installed. Only running on one monitor has worked to prevent hangs for me.

After I did the clean install I still had the hanging problem with Deskscapes and my 2 monitors, without Start 11.  But since my last reply, after installing the latest Windows 11 update of Version 25H2, and reinstalling Start 11, I haven't had an explorer.exe hang in over a week.  I'm still not convinced the problem is gone, because I've had long periods of time without the error before.  But, so far, this is one of the longest periods error free.

Hi Basj,

Can you test with monitors with different resolutions and make sure that there are stills of mutliple sizes mixed with dreams of different sizes? I can repro this on my machine in a clean install of Windows 11 and Deskscapes. You can probably just set one of the displays to a lower resolution to test.

Should I submit a support ticket?

Hello JaSunni,

I did changed my monitors resolution/windows scale factors often, for the requirement of my job in testing user issue. But so far none that I can see directly link to Deskscapes. Perhaps, my testing not long enough. What resolution or scale factors you're using in your system? And how fast the issue appear, after several hours or usual PC use? I will try to test it on my system.

Thank you,

Basj,
Stardock Community Assistant