Windows 10 November 2019 Update brings new File Explorer Frozen and Unresponsive issue

[Karlston]

Windows 10 November 2019 Update brings new File Explorer Frozen and Unresponsive issue

Microsoft has started to roll out the Windows 10 November 2019 Update to Windows 10 users, currently “seekers” ie. those who specifically check for updates.

 

The update is meant to be minor and therefore trouble-free, but it appears Microsoft has not managed to avoid any issues.

 

One of the few new features in the November 2019 Update is changes to search in Windows 10, which is now separate from Cortana. This means the Search box in the File Explorer is now more powerful, including showing you previews of files you are searching for as you type.

 

It appears this feature is causing some problems, as some users report that File Explorer appears to become locked, frozen and unresponsive, and has to be force closed and restarted to work again.

 

On Microsoft Answers one user notes:

“Actually sometimes search box is getting totally stuck. In windows explorer (folders of window explorer process), it’s not clickable at all, neither right click nor left click works, until you force restart windows explorer. That fixes it for a while, until it gets stuck again.”

Another notes:

I was having the same problem when I was using the update (KB4517245), when I clicked in the search box, I had to wait for a abnormally large amount of time before the search box unfreeze and the cursor appeared, the right click never worked for me, not even a single time when I was using the 1909 build 18363.476… However, after uninstalling that update (if you can call it that) and start using again the 1903 build 18362.476 everything is fine again.

 

Also, with this new update the user needs to press enter or click in the arrow to start the search, this is a new futile and extra work for no reason, before this update the search was automatic, and started as soon as the user stopped writing.

 

I want to update windows to the latest version but foremost I need a working and functional Windows.

Others also corroborate the issue, which has also been replicated by WindowsLatest.

 

While Microsoft has not acknowledged the issue yet, it does seem like exactly the kind of problem a more resource-intensive search UI would cause.

 

Users also report that right-click has been disabled in the Search box, making it difficult to paste a search term there.

 

Have any of our readers run into the file explorer frozen issue? Let us know below.

 

Source: Windows 10 November 2019 Update brings new File Explorer Frozen and Unresponsive issue  (MSPoweruser)

[Guest]

Yeah, I had that similar issue. Once typing on the search box, then have to enter for the results to appear (as opposed to results automatically appear once typing on the search box).

 

However, need to rule out either this issue occurs due to disabling search indexing (which I did to increase my laptop's performance), and/or if this issue also occurred even though enabling search indexing.

[phillthedrill]

Same here.....I just upgraded to 20H1 which should be finalized within a month and that took care of the problem. I got tired of always force closing file explorer and starting it back just to search anything. Microsoft's quality control is such shit nowadays, it's unreal!

[Ryrynz]

Interesting that 20H1 fixed it for you..  wonder what it is that's causing it. I use startisback++ and haven't seen any issues.

Ah well, not a showstopper..

Surprised about 20H1 possibly hitting RTM before the years end, it's meant to be released around late March..

[phillthedrill]

7 hours ago, Ryrynz said:

Interesting that 20H1 fixed it for you..  wonder what it is that's causing it. I use startisback++ and haven't seen any issues.

Ah well, not a showstopper..

Surprised about 20H1 possibly hitting RTM before the years end, it's meant to be released around late March..

 

Yeah, 20H1 says version 1903 right now. I wouldn't think startisback++ would have anything to do with explorer. Isn't that just the start menu? I think they're trying for a release twice a year, in the middle and end/beginning. So we should have another update being 20H2 around June, I believe.

[Guest]

23 hours ago, phillthedrill said:

Microsoft's quality control is such shit nowadays, it's unreal!

Well, they never learn their lesson anyway. Too much relying on Insiders without relying in-house QA testers. As if a guinea pig experiment.

[Karlston]

A couple of earlier posts about Windows update quality problems...

 

 

The video in the first post is enlightening.

[phillthedrill]

9 hours ago, Karlston said:

A couple of earlier posts about Windows update quality problems...

 

 

The video in the first post is enlightening.

 

Wow, that was very enlightening! Thanks for sharing that. Now, it makes a lot more sense. They ultimately are doing it to save money, I'm sure but screwing it up in the process. I doubt the quality will ever be the same, even though he said they're talking baby steps towards quality.

[Guest]

45 minutes ago, phillthedrill said:

 

Wow, that was very enlightening! Thanks for sharing that. Now, it makes a lot more sense. They ultimately are doing it to save money, I'm sure but screwing it up in the process. I doubt the quality will ever be the same, even though he said they're talking baby steps towards quality.

I hope that they don't do the same mistake with the upcoming 20H1 release.

[Ryrynz]

14 hours ago, Edward Raja said:

I hope that they don't do the same mistake with the upcoming 20H1 release.

 

It's not a mistake, it's just a less robust way of doing things.. In saying that things have improved greatly since this process started.. 

It's not going back to the way it was unfortunately, but machine learning is really making big strides in automating a lot of this stuff.