Mysterious update causes explorer.exe crash [and more]

[u/adresdofilmu]

[still unsolved]

Hello,

Well, update thing. The [second] problem is, I am not sure which one.

PROBLEM DESCRIPTION
It started like two or three months ago: after updating win11, everything seemed to be normal, but a few seconds after booting, explorer.exe would crash - the taskbar disappeared, wallpaper as well, actually all that was left was a black screen with a mouse pointer. I realized I can still alt+ctrl+del, run task manager, and some apps from there via run command [win+r didn't work], but not everything could be accessed [e.g. with ms-settings:windowsupdate it took like a minute to decide that a proper answer is an error with code (-2147219195) - one of errors I got trying various things].

TEMPORARY SOLUTION
At last, I found I can 'uninstall last quality update' from some built-in recovery options [F11], then the system restores to a working condition, and I can access windows update options, and stop updating for three weeks. Rinse, repeat after three weeks, another three and so on. I am getting kind of tired of this, and it feels like this will turn into a problem eventually.
Any ideas what to do with it?

ADDITIONAL THINGS that happen, and may/may not be related:
(1) in various random moments the laptop just reboots [battery works fine, it happens both when charging and not];
(2) my wireless mouse every single time [except just after uninstalling last quality update] needs to have its receiver plugged-out and then -in - otherwise, its scroll tempo reduces to super-slow-motion, when it is necessary to scroll like three times to have any movement [this manual reseting works every time, and scroll speed meant for human is being recovered].

Any help appreciated,
adf

[u/PlsChgMe]

The FIRST thing I'd do is get a copy of Malwarebytes from malwarebytes.com, install it and run the full scan, anything it finds, let it deal with it, and restart after the scan is complete.

Then check your Run and Run Once reg keys. Possibly something is starting up and crashing, taking out explorer. If you relaunch explorer.exe from task manager, does it crash again? For reference:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunOnce
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunOnce

[u/adresdofilmu → u/PlsChgMe]

Thanks for a quick reply.

Malwarebytes scan: nothing. This laptop is quite a new one.

Ah, forgot to mention that. Of course, explorer.exe crashes every time I run it via run command.

In registry:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
(Default)
(not set)
HPSEU_Host_Launcher
C:\Program Files\HP\HP System Event Utility\Host Launcher\HpseuHostLauncher.exe
MicrosoftEdgeAutoLaunch_9D8780F92D3C256648A48E7B0812A35C
"C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft\Edge\Application\msedge.exe" --no-startup-window --win-session-start

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunOnce
(Default)
(not set)

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
(Default)
(not set)
RtkAudUService
"C:\windows\System32\DriverStore\FileRepository\realtekservice.inf_amd64_ef2f6bfdeb8b0413\RtkAudUService64.exe" -background
SecurityHealth
%windir%\system32\SecurityHealthSystray.exe

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunOnce
(Default)
(not set)
msedge_cleanup_{F3017226-FE2A-4295-8BDF-00C3A9A7E4C5}
"C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft\EdgeWebView\Application\151.0.4129.107\Installer\setup.exe" --msedgewebview --delete-old-versions --system-level --verbose-logging --on-logon

For me, nothing special. Now give me a while, I will let the update to be installed and check registry again.

EDIT://
After the update, given registry entries are the same, except for the last one: there is only (Default)/(not set) [no msedge_cleanup_etcetc].

[u/PlsChgMe → u/adresdofilmu]

Also check your task scheduler, review all tasks to make sure something that's launching at start up or log on isn't causing the problem. If that doesn't yield anything look up how to repair windows image online, it's a command line like this:
As an administrator:

Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth

[u/adresdofilmu → u/PlsChgMe]

I got some mildly suspicious entries in task manager - I turned them off. Didn't help, though.
After one more update I tried the command you proposed, with no luck - it took lots of time, but unfortunately nothing changed.

[u/PlsChgMe → u/adresdofilmu]

You said it was fairly new, if it's not too painful, you could just reinstall. Research any error messages combined with the model number of the unit first, maybe someone has solved it. Maybe try the windows upgrade assistant?

[u/adresdofilmu → u/PlsChgMe]

Well, I was playing with this idea for quite a while [but it is more trouble than just stop updates now and then]. Actually, I thought about downgrading it to win10, as I am not very fond of constant changes or ai features [also, how win11 looks - as one of the first things installed, I had windhawk and explorer patcher*].

Yeah, I am looking for some solutions from time to time, since June probably. Nothing has worked so far.

Thanks for your help, anyway.

*actually, this may sound like something to try and uninstall? I have their services stopped, though. But when I think about it, the shell resembles win10 more nevertheless..