STL files crash windows explorer

Hi all,

I'm new and I'm joining the 3D printer revolution!! Or trying to anyway. Any .STL file I download crashes Windows Explorer so I can't even view the files or move them once I've downloaded them. I'm using Windows 7 Pro x64. I've taken several CAD courses at college and on their computers I've exported STL files from Autodesk Inventor and AutoCAD, and there wasn't issue. On MY computer though, whenever I navigate to a folder with a STL file Windows Explorer crashes and restarts. Sometimes I can open the folder and see the file, but as soon as I click on it crashes. Further complicating matters, If I use STL viewer to open a file, I can navigate to the folders and open a file just fine. It's only when I'm in the explorer that I have issues. Also, Windows sees STLs as some kind of Security Certificate and I wonder if it's invoking somthing in the background trying to process those files as a certificate. I changed the default program to STLviewer, but it did not solve the issue.

Does anyone have any suggestions (other than tossing Windows out into the street).

Thank you for your time,

James

If your crashing explorer the odds are you have a shell extension installed that does something with STL files when windows tries to display or index them.
It was probably installed when you installed something onto your machine.
That's extension is probably crashing, and taking the explorer process down with it.
There is a program called ShellExView I think that will show you what you have installed.

ahh, I will check that out. Sounds like that might be the issue.

Thanks.

EDIT: Alright, so I installed ShellExView and disabled everything that wasn't from Microsoft and I don't know if it's just a context menu or something else, because even after I disabled all the context options, it still had issues, so I disabled all the other types of extensions too. I'll try to narrow it down later, but right nowI don't want to mess with uninstalling and reinstalling apps depending on where the problem is. I was planning on building a media streaming pc here in the next few months anyway, so that might get turned into a dedicated 3D machine instead.

Thanks again,

James

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/12/2012 11:44PM by jimdaug.

I gotta say this was all new to me, but the problem ended up being an extension called SynShellEx Class. Its some kind of thumbnail generator for Autodesk Moldflow, which was installed with Inventor 2012. The ShellExView description of it is SYNSHELL Dynamic Link Library for Autodesk Moldflow. I don't know if I have to reinstall Inventor or if the install can be repaired or what. For now I'm just going to leave it disabled so that I can at least look at STL files.

Thank you for your post. I had the exact same issue with Win 7 64x Ultimate. I have the 2013 Product Design Suite

Quote
jimdaug
I gotta say this was all new to me, but the problem ended up being an extension called SynShellEx Class. Its some kind of thumbnail generator for Autodesk Moldflow, which was installed with Inventor 2012. The ShellExView description of it is SYNSHELL Dynamic Link Library for Autodesk Moldflow. I don't know if I have to reinstall Inventor or if the install can be repaired or what. For now I'm just going to leave it disabled so that I can at least look at STL files.

You are spot on. The issue is with displaying thumbnails in Windows Explorer. Easiest fix is to kill thumbnail displaying.....open folder options, click on the View tab, then check first box for "Always show icons, never thumbnails", and it will stop crashing.

Hi jimdaug

I'm having the same problem, and also have MoldFlow and Inventor installed.
Can you tell me please how you disabled the extension called SynShellEx Class?
Did you have to use the ShellExView program? Or can I do it without?

Thanks

Hi Creo
Thanks for that advice. It did work perfectly to stop Windows Explorer from crashing. A good temporary fix so I can at least transfer my .stl files around properly without crashing. But now I can't see previews of any other files like photos or PDFs, so will like to disable the shell extension instead. Thanks for your help.

Hi Beck,

It's been so long ago i can't remember the exact steps of what I did. I hardly use that computer and I haven't printed anything in over a year. I'm pretty sure I had to use the ShellExView program. That probably isn't much help tho