You might at times, get this error message on Windows 10/8/7 -: Explorer.exe server execution failed. This might happen because the Shell folder values might be incorrect or they might be missing. In this article, I’ll suggest you few methods to resolve it.
Explorer.exe server execution failed
Step 1:
Method 1 is using the Microsoft Fixit. Microsoft has a knowledge base article on “Error 1606: Could Not Access Network Location” that error message happens for the same reason like this one. So we could run the Microsoft Fixit tool provided in that article KB886549 to resolve the problem. What this does is it will restore the default settings in following registry locations:
- HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders
- HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders
Once you run the Fix It, reboot the system and test it and see if that works.
Step 2:
Method 2 is to manually change the values from the Shell folder location.
Note: Make a backup of your registry before making any changes.
Once you have created a backup, open regedit and navigate to the following keys:
- HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders
- HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders
Here are the default values:
More for information refer the Microsoft article KB886549 mentioned above.
Step 3:
If both the steps fail to resolve your problem, then create a new Windows Profile. For more assistance to create new Windows Profile and transferring the files, visit this article on how to fix a corrupted user profile, create a new user profile and copy files to the new user profile.
Hope something helps.
- Tags: Explorer, Troubleshoot
