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Experiencing the infamous Explorer.exe restart loop after upgrading to Windows 8.1

Hi, I am having a problem ever since upgrading from windows 8 that came with my notebook to 8.1. 

I think I run into windows the infamous explorer.exe restart loop problem (basically explorer.exe would pop up and close itself then reloads over and over again...), and the problem persistents even in the Safe Mode. However, under Safe Mode, I would be able to see an error message, something like "the exception code 0x0eedfade = unknown software caused the crash", but basically it's still the same thing and I dunno how to fix this at all... 

If I were to close explorer.exe with task manager, I can stop the loop from repeating itself, but I lose my desktop capability and explorer.exe at the same while EVERYTHING else still works. This is exactly the condition I am in right now while typing the problem out. I can get to most of the programs through "Run" or "command prompt", but I have to search out the execution file by myself, which isn't fun at all. I am really furious and stuck at this point. 

Neither "Refresh" or "Restore" works because an error message tells me something like that the hard drive with windows is locked and I couldn't find a way to unlock it. My notebook's Recovery doesn't work as well because I can not revert back to Windows 8. Very frustrated about such a retail version design forcing people to upgrade and no guarantee of bug-free or the choice to restore back to the original version of Windows... 

Anyways, I am hoping to get fast and useful response from the official Q&A team here because I don't want to format my hard drive and lose everything yet. The notebook was working just fine before this update. 

Thank you very much. I'd appreciate it if ANYONE can give me a solution ASAP (My job and work are at stake here...really need my notebook to be functional...) Thanx again in advance! 


P.S.: I am very willing to provide the error report of my computer, but you guys gotta tell me how through command prompt or run. Basically I can't click to any icon or use the Metro. I've virtually lost my Windows!!!

Hi Jerry,

 

This issue could be due to some unknown software. I would suggest you to place the computer in a clean boot state and try to eliminate the error.

 

How to perform a clean boot to troubleshoot a problem in Windows Vista, Windows 7, or Windows 8

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/929135

 

Note: To reset the computer to normal mode after troubleshooting, please refer “How to reset the computer to start as usual” from the above article.

 

Hope this information helps. If you have any concerns, please let us know.

K.Z. Sharief Khan
Ex-Microsoft Forum Moderator

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Hi,

Thx for ur reply.  Maybe I should clarify a bit, by referring to rebooting with Safe Mode is actually rebooting by the method the clean boot page u suggested, and that's when the error code part shows up ("the exception code 0x0eedfade = unknown software caused the crash").  The explorer.exe would still restart after I close the error message.  Basically, the windows is clean without any startup program or service running. Furthermore, I have actually submit my explorer.exe to Virustotal to check for virus as well, and the result was clean.  

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Last updated February 22, 2021 Views 1,855 Applies to: