Microsoft Windows has stopped working

Question

Hello all

I recently got a new laptop running windows 10, and it was working fine until a few days ago.

While I was using it, everything got super slow even though I only had a few programs open. Then an error message popped up: Microsoft Windows has stopped working

The only options were to end the process or wait. I tried waiting and nothing happened so I ended the process, which of course made everything disappear.

So I shut it down and tried restarting (it didn't), so I tried troubleshooting (it suggested system restore, which didn't work), then I tried the system restore again (it failed) but somehow, it booted up, and I could use it again (this whole process took all night)

Now, some icons pinned to my taskbar are missing (they don't open upon being clicked), some programs are listed weird (like @{Microsoft.Windows.Photos......), and now, I can't open photos. At least not with the photos app. Nothing would happen.

After performing a clean boot, it gives me the following error instead: "windows can not find 'path\to\image.jpg'. make sure you typed the name correctly, and then try again.

Some solutions I found online that were sort of related to this proposed reinstalling windows while keeping my files, but I would like to avoid losing all my programs without trying everything else first.

I realise this was very long and thank you for reading through the whole thing. Please tell me if there's anything I can do

Answer 1

We appreciate the update that you have provided. For us to assist you further, we suggest that you manually download and install the update for your Windows 10 computer using the new user account. By downloading and installing a new update will fix corrupted system files. Here's a link where you can see the latest update available for your Windows 10. After you verify which update is available for you to download, we suggest that you go to this link. From there, you'll be able to download the update just search for it using it's KB.

We hope the information we provided helps.

Answer 2

I have successfully installed the latest update for my version of windows 10. Unfortunately,  it did not solve the issue.

I also remembered that I had a missing icons issue with windows 7 in an older machine that was caused by the environment variable PATH exceeding the character limit, but this is not the cause of the problem in this case.

EDIT:

Actually, the update seems to have fixed some of the issues (mail, twitter, and some other programs no longer have missing icons and work properly now). Some other apps such as messenger and photos still aren't working though, and I'm still getting the same error when trying to open photos from file explorer

EDIT A FEW DAYS LATER:

The Creator update just finished installing, and the problems apps are still misbehaving. I have decided to (attempt to) uninstall then reinstall the ones I notice, which seems to work. Though some apps refused to be uninstalled, I am allowed to get them from the store. I will continue to do this as I find more apps somewhere in my machine.

For now, I will consider this case closed.

Thank you very much for your help

Answer 3

Thank you for replying.

I have tried booting in safe mode, and there were no changes.

I hadn't installed anything new for at least a couple of days (with no problems. I didn't do anything new either). However, when I had tried before to do a system restore, it gave me an option to roll back to the same day this issue started (13th of July 2017) claiming there was a critical update installed, though I do not remember restarting for this reason. Looking at my update history now, this is what it says

Also, I should restate that when I tried system restore before, it failed.

I don't have another user on this laptop. Upon creating a new one, the new user doesn't have any of the "problem" apps (such as twitter, messenger, mail, photos and other trusted windows store apps) installed in the first place, so I'm not sure how to test if it's affected or not.

Should I try uninstalling and reinstalling the apps I've noticed problems with?

Answer 4

Hi,

For us to provide an accurate solution for the issue that you are experiencing, kindly elaborate the issue by answering the questions listed below:

• Have you tried booting your PC in safe mode?
• Were there any recent changes on your computer before this happened like installed software, hardware or updates?
• Have you tried logging in using a different user account? If so, are you experiencing the same issue using another user account?

If you haven't tried booting your PC in safe mode, we suggest that you perform that. By doing this, it will disable all third party programs or software that might be causing conflicts with your system. Here's an article that you can visit to see how to boot your PC in safe mode.

When you log in using a different account, this will help us isolate the issue further. If it doesn't occur on the other user account, this means that your current user account has a corrupted user profile. If you don't have another user account, we suggest that you create a new one. Here's an article that you can check. From there, you'll see a simple guide on how to create a new user account in Windows 10.

We'll be waiting for your reply.