ExplorerPatcher breaks file refresh on Windows 11

[johnferg]

It appears that ExplorerPatcher may have broken my file explorer. Although I have since uninstalled ExplorerPatcher, I am left with a very annoying bug in Windows 11, whereby file explorer is not automatically refreshing after any file operation such as rename, move, delete, etc. After every file operation I have to hit F5 for the change to be visible. From Googling, I have found that others have hit this same problem, and it seems to be linked to a combination of Windows 11 and ExplorerPatcher:

• https://www.reddit.com/r/Windows11/comments/r5lb02/folder_and_file_icons_not_updating_have_to_f5_to/
• https://www.elevenforum.com/t/file-explorer-and-copy-and-paste.23185/

Note that this second link mentions OneDrive (which I do use), so that is another possible culprit, however ExplorerPatcher seems more likely to me. What's more, I see this problem even in folders that are not linked to OneDrive.

Is it possible that my ExplorerPatcher installation made some change to Windows that caused this bug, and that uninstalling it did not undo that change?

Any input would be much appreciated, as I'd rather find a solution that does not require reinstalling Windows!

Note that it was a while ago that I installed (and subsequently uninstalled) ExplorerPatcher, so this may not necessarily be an issue with the most recent version.

[pyrates999]

You may need to repair your windows install. Please run the following in an elevated command prompt or elevated powershell:

chkdsk C:

If it tells you there are errors, then run this:

chkdsk C: /F

Reboot to run it on boot. Keep running that command until it reports no errors. Then run this to repair windows:

sfc /scannow
dism /online /cleanup-image /scanhealth
dism /online /cleanup-image /restorehealth
dism /online /cleanup-image /checkhealth
dism /online /cleanup-image /analyzecomponentstore
dism /online /cleanup-image /startcomponentcleanup

Then reboot your computer.

[pyrates999]

do NOT download that, it is malware.

[ehoogeveen-medweb]

IIRC you can't run chkdsk with the /F flag on the OS drive unless you reboot into some sort of recovery mode. This should work though (/V so it gives a little more info, /perf so it uses more resources to run faster):

chkdsk C: /V /scan /perf

also I'm pretty sure sfc relies on the component store being valid, so it should be run after dism:

dism /online /cleanup-image /scanhealth
dism /online /cleanup-image /restorehealth
sfc /scannow

I don't think you need /checkhealth (reports whether the component store was flagged as corrupted), /analyzecomponentstore (checks how much junk and wasted space is in the component store) or /startcomponentcleanup (cleans up the component store), though that last one might be a good idea as a little cleanup can't hurt.

[pyrates999]

No, you can run this on the OS drive:

chkdsk C: /F

It will just prompt you to reboot and run it then because the volume is in use.