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Windows11 File Explorer crashes when right-clicking on network drive
When you right-click a mapped network drive in File Explorer, the explorer.exe process crashes and automatically restarts.
This issue occurs repeatedly on multiple network drives, especially when the network connection is slightly unstable.
Disconnecting the drive and remapping it may temporarily resolve the issue, but it reoccurs after a system restart or when the network connection is reestablished.
2 Replies
File Explorer stores a history of recent files and folders. If a dead or slow network path is stuck in this history, it can cause crashes.
A network interruption should not normally terminate explorer.exe, so the crash suggests that something invoked by the network-drive context menu is failing—commonly a third-party shell extension, security client, sync tool, or network provider. Start by opening Event Viewer > Windows Logs > Application immediately after a crash and record the faulting module for explorer.exe. Disconnect the mapping, confirm the share works by entering its UNC path directly, then remap it using the server’s full DNS name. Install Windows, network-adapter, VPN, endpoint-security, and storage-client updates. Next perform a clean boot and retest the right-click; if the crash stops, re-enable non-Microsoft services and startup items in groups to isolate the component. Run DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth and then sfc /scannow from an elevated terminal. If the fault occurs on multiple PCs with the same share, collect the Event Viewer module, Windows build, mapping command, and server SMB details before escalating
