Don’t Update Your PC Yet—The Latest Windows 11 Patch Breaks File Explorer – MUO – MakeUseOf

You usually expect Windows updates to add features, but the latest Windows 11 update is going backwards by breaking File Explorer.Several users have reported that Windows 11 KB5051987 broke File Explorer, the primary app most use to access the files and folders on their PCs. According to Windows Latest, its team cannot open any folders on the File Explorer app after installing the update. Even when they tried to open any folder via a desktop shortcut or Windows Search, it failed to respond. The app hasn’t crashed, though, with the explorer.exe process still running normally in the Task Manager. Instead, it just manages to ignore you.If this happens to you and you really need to access your files, your next best option is to install one of the best Windows File Explorer alternatives to get things going. This might not be ideal, but you could at least access your files while waiting for a fix from Microsoft.However, this isn’t the only problem reported with this update. Other users say that update download is stuck at 0% for hours at a time, while a few more would be able to successfully download the update, only to get a “Something didn’t go as planned” error upon installation. This might be a good thing, though, as at least you don’t have to deal with the annoying File Explorer issue.Other reported issues include disabling the built-in camera on an HP Spectre laptop, significantly reduced GPU performance on an Nvidia RTX 4090, and Windows refusing to boot altogether after the update. For users who have already installed the update and are experiencing File Explorer or other issues, you could manually uninstall the Windows update to get your PC working normally again.However, you may need to temporarily turn off automatic updates as KB5051987 is a mandatory security update and it will try to install it again. To do so, you need to go to Settings > Windows Update > Pause updates. From there, you can choose between one and five weeks in the dropdown menu, which should hopefully be enough time for Microsoft to release another update that will fix this issue.We want to hear from you! Share your opinions in the thread below and remember to keep it respectful.Your comment has not been savedYou can’t uninstall the update because it’s a mandatory update. I have already uninstalled everything I could but I’m still crashing. My File Explorer still works but it’s slow. I get a “Working on it” message every time I open a folder.It makes a bigger difference than you think.Microsoft isn’t budging on the hardware requirements needed to run Windows 11.Find out how good or bad your PC is with the help of the Windows Experience Index score.Say goodbye to paying for a PDF app.Do more. Type less.It’s just easier.

Source: https://www.makeuseof.com/windows-11-update-breaks-file-explorer/