Microsoft is known for releasing regular updates for Windows 11, either to fix bugs or install new features. However, the latest Windows update has broken File Explorer.
File Explorer refuses to open folders after installing Windows 11 update KB5051987
Some users have reported that Windows 11 KB5051987 has broken File Explorer, the main app that most people use to access files and folders on their PCs. According to Windows Latest, their team was unable to open any folders in the File Explorer app after installing the update. Even when they tried to open any folders via desktop shortcuts or Windows Search, it remained unresponsive. However, the app did not crash, with the explorer.exe process still running normally in Task Manager. Instead, it just tried to ignore you.
If this happens to you and you really need to access your files, your next best option is to install one of the best Windows File Explorer alternatives to get things running smoothly. This may not be ideal, but at least you can get your data back while you wait for a fix from Microsoft.
However, this isn’t the only issue reported with this update. Other users have reported that the update download has been stuck at 0% for hours, while some have been able to download the update successfully, only to receive the “Something didn’t go as expected” error when installing. This may be a good thing, though, as at least you don’t have to deal with the annoying File Explorer issue.
Other reported issues include the built-in camera disabling on HP Spectre laptops, significant GPU performance drops on Nvidia RTX 4090s, and Windows refusing to boot entirely after the update. For users who have installed the update and are experiencing File Explorer issues or other issues, you can manually uninstall the Windows update to get your PC back to normal.
However, you may need to temporarily disable automatic updates because KB5051987 is a mandatory security update and it will try to install again. To do this, you need to go to Settings > Windows Update > Pause updates .
From there, you can select from 1 to 5 weeks in the drop-down menu, which should hopefully be enough time for Microsoft to release another update that will fix this issue.
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