Windows explorer crashes when dismounting

Open source disk encryption with strong security for the Paranoid

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Windows explorer crashes when dismounting

Forum: Technical Topics

Created: 2017-01-07

Updated: 2017-01-08

hg28f - 2017-01-07

Hello, when I right click on the veracrypt icon in the tray ( it's in the pop up arrow that can be expanded)
and dismount a data voulme not a system one, often but not always windows explorer will freeze.
There is no other programs running when that happens so it is Veracrypt that causes it.

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Mounir IDRASSI - 2017-01-08

Hi,

Can you please try disabling the VeraCrypt wait dialog and see if the freeze happens again? You can disable it using menu Settings -> Preferences and then check "Don't show wait message dialog when performing operations".

Other than this, I don't see why dismounting could free Explorer. Please check if you have any Explorer extensions that may be trying to access files on the dismounted volume (it depends on the data stored on your volume).

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Lemon Juice - 2017-01-24

Hi, I've been having the same problem and it started happening sometime last month, probably after one of the windows 10 updates. However, most often I was using truecrypt but found out that veracrypt behaves the same. Explorer.exe hangs after Truecrypt/Veracrypt is dismounted from the system tray and the option "Exit when there are no mounted volumes" is selected. Without this option there is no problem and dismounting from the main window there is no problem, either.

I made some more experiments and observed some weird phonomena. First, I was playing with truecrypt and found out that wiping cached passwords also hanged explorer, so I tried the same in veracrypt. In veracrypt this option didn't cause any freezez but interestingly, after wiping the passwords those explorer freezez stopped when dismounting from the system tray. Then I checked truecrypt and it froze once and then no more freezez. So it looks like wiping the passwords in veracrypt solved the problem for both programs. I restarted the computer a few times to make sure this is how it worked.

However, now after some time of using my computer (some 15 minutes) I notice that the explorer freezez when dismounting started happening again. But then wiping the passwords solves the problem - at least temporarily.

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Lemon Juice - 2017-01-24

I forgot - the option "Don't show wait message dialog when performing operations" doesn't help with the freezes.

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J. Coltraine - 2017-05-03

Sorry for bumping an old thread, but I'm facing the same issue.

I'm currently using Windows 10 Enterprise LTSB 64-bit 14393.1066 and the only thing I have installed is ESET Smart Security along VeraCrypt, video card (NVidia) and sound card (ASUS) drivers.

I can reproduce the issue doing the following:
1. Mount the volume.
2. Right click on tray icon and dismount all or the single volume.
3. Explorer "hangs", can't click on start menu, open folders, nothing, I have to open task manager from the keyboard shortcut, end explorer.exe task and run it again.

If I open VeraCrypt dialog and unmount the volume, no problems occurs.

I noticed that after I unmount the volume from the tray icon, it freezes before the Windows 10 action center shows any info about what just happened.

What's strange, this started to happens to me after a fresh Windows 10 install, before that I never faced this issue, and everything I have installed now is exactly what I had in the previous install.

Last edit: J. Coltraine 2017-05-04

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Clu - 2017-05-03

Same problem here. Changing settings didn't solve my problem. Is the only solution/workaround is to run Vera Crypt as admin.

//Win 10 Pro Version 1703

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J. Coltraine - 2017-05-03

Just tested with a fresh Windows 10 Enterprise LTSB 14393.0 just with VeraCrypt installed, explorer still freezes.

Note that I tested with many combinations of the available configurations, such as mount as read-only, as removable media, background task, cache wipe and etc, even running the proccess as administrator.

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Now I tested with Windows 10 Pro 64-bit 14393.0 and the problem don't happen in this version, it seems to be something with the Windows edition. I'll update this machine to 14393.1066 and see if this problem will start to happen.

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After I updated the machine to 14393.1066, explorer.exe would freeze again after I unmount a volume from the tray icon. Not sure if I didn't tested enough before the update to make sure the cause is really a Windows update.

Last edit: J. Coltraine 2017-05-04

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Greslo - 2017-08-21

I have the same issue. //Win 10 ENT Version 1703 + ESET + ASUS drivers
Maybe ESET or ASUS causes this?
Explorer hangs, MS Outlook hangs. Can't find solution, but assume it may be Windows security update.

I had no problems with //Win 10 ENT LTSB Version 1607

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