explorer.exe will not run

Question

I have a DELL Inspiron 5490 desktop running windows 11. I updated the BIOS as recommended by DELL and afterwards the PC boots almost normally but explorer.exe will not run. The screen is blank. I can start programs manually from the task manager but if I try to start explorer.exe that way, it starts and then stops again almost immediately. I tried reimaging the PC and it worked correctly for about fifteen seconds and then the screen went blank again with the same explorer.exe issue. I have tried a system repair, booting in safe mode, re flashing the BIOS but nothing changes. I did briefly see an error that said something about Windows Explorer not being able to access icons but it was up for such a short time that I couldn't catch all of what it said and I never saw it again.

What can I do to get my system back to normal?

Answer 1

That didn't work. Reinstalling the entire system from an image didn't work, so I simply rebuilt the whole system from the ground up. It took less time than trying to find the cause of the problem was going to.

Answer 2

Please create a new local admin account to test. If the issue doesn't arise in that profile, discard your old account and move your files to the new account.