Blank folder pane in Windows Explorer

R

ralfko

New Member
Hello :)
I do not have a folder pane (a folder tree with the Desktop, my Computer, the Network) in Explorer any more.
This is a rather annoiing and difficult problem, and have searched several times for hour with NO solution for Vista.

I do not know exactly when this started, since I'm not normally using Windows Explorer that much. Now when I open the Explorer, the place where the Folder pane should be is totally blank, as seen below. (My Layout is set to "Navigation Pane")

vistaexplorerfolderpane.jpg


I can see contents of folders in the Right pane and navigate through them, but can't see any folder hierarchy in the Left Folder-pane -- it's just totally blank as shown above.

Does anyone have a solution? I'd rather not re-install Vista...

PS: The problem seemed to exists in W9x and ME too Windows Explorer-Left Pane Empty - Tech Support Guy Forums and has a fix from MS, to delete a part of the registry, but this does not work for Vista.

Thanks a lot in Advance,
Ralfko

PS: I've read Brink's information on resetting Folder View settings and tried this to, but it did not help.
 
Last edited:

My Computer

System One

Thanks for your reply you brummyfan!

I tried to do a "regsvr32 /i shdocvw", but it gives the following error message:

vistaexplorerfolderpane.jpg


Do you (or anyone else) have any idea what this means? Could the DLL be broken? Could that be my problem?

My c:\windows\system32\shdocvw.dll is from 11-04-2009 07:28 and 1.068.032 bytes big. It is probably from SP2, and it could be right that after the upgrade to SP2 some months ago, the problem started..

I also tried before to re-register a bunch of other DLLs.. (The shdocvw is also in there). The date form the zip file however is 2006-5-25, so it might not be for Vista...

I'll include the script here:
@rem echo off
echo installs and registers (if suitable) all DLLs known to be used by IE.
echo please be patient until it ends
echo Version 1.03 25.05.2006
echo
regsvr32 /s actxprxy.dll
regsvr32 /s asctrls.ocx
regsvr32 /s /i browseui.dll
REM regsvr32 /s /i browseui.dll,NI (unnecessary)
regsvr32 /s cdfview.dll
regsvr32 /s comcat.dll
regsvr32 /s /i /n comctl32.dll
regsvr32 /s corpol.dll
regsvr32 /s cryptdlg.dll
regsvr32 /s /i /n digest.dll
regsvr32 /s dispex.dll
regsvr32 /s dxtmsft.dll
regsvr32 /s dxtrans.dll
regsvr32 /s hlink.dll
regsvr32 /s iepeers.dll
regsvr32 /s /i iesetup.dll
REM iesetup.dll has DllINstall for WinXP,NT4Only,NTx86
regsvr32 /s imgutil.dll
REM regsvr32 /s /i inetcpl.cpl
regsvr32 /s /i /n inetcpl.cpl
regsvr32 /s /i inseng.dll
regsvr32 /s jscript.dll
regsvr32 /s licmgr10.dll
regsvr32 /s mlang.dll
regsvr32 /s mobsync.dll
REM regsvr32 /s msapsspc.dll
REM regsvr32 /s mshta.exe
regsvr32 /s /i mshtml.dll
REM regsvr32 /s /i mshtml.dll,NI
regsvr32 /s mshtmled.dll
regsvr32 /s msident.dll
regsvr32 /s /i msieftp.dll
REM regsvr32 /s msnsspc.dll
REM regsvr32 /s msr2c.dll
regsvr32 /s msrating.dll
regsvr32 /s msxml.dll
regsvr32 /s /i occache.dll
regsvr32 /s oleaut32.dll
regsvr32 /s plugin.ocx
regsvr32 /s pngfilt.dll
regsvr32 /s proctexe.ocx
regsvr32 /s /i scrobj.dll
regsvr32 /s sendmail.dll
REM regsvr32 /s /i setupwbv.dll (not there anymore!)
regsvr32 /s /i shdocvw.dll
REM regsvr32 /s /i shdocvw.dll,NI
regsvr32 /s tdc.ocx
regsvr32 /s /i urlmon.dll
REM regsvr32 /s /i urlmon.dll,NI,HKLM
regsvr32 /s vbscript.dll
regsvr32 /s /i webcheck.dll
regsvr32 /s /i /n wininet.dll
REM added 11.05.2006 Symptom: Add-Ons-Manager menu entry is present but nothing happens
regsvr32 /s extmgr.dll
REM added 12.05.2006 Symptom: Javascript links don't work (Robin Walker) .NET hub file
regsvr32 /s mscoree.dll
REM mscorier.dll
REM mscories.dll
REM IE7 tabbed browser
regsvr32 /s /i ieframe.dll
REM url.dll
REM initpki takes loooong to run, may get commented out, unlikely to be necessary
echo We are almost done except one crypto file
echo but this will take very long, be patient!
regsvr32 /s /i:A initpki.dll
echo
echo all tasks have been finished
@echo on
Click to expand...
 

My Computer

System One

ralfko said:
Thanks for your reply you brummyfan!

I tried to do a "regsvr32 /i shdocvw", but it gives the following error message:

vistaexplorerfolderpane.jpg


Do you (or anyone else) have any idea what this means? Could the DLL be broken? Could that be my problem?

My c:\windows\system32\shdocvw.dll is from 11-04-2009 07:28 and 1.068.032 bytes big. It is probably from SP2, and it could be right that after the upgrade to SP2 some months ago, the problem started..

I also tried before to re-register a bunch of other DLLs.. (The shdocvw is also in there). The date form the zip file however is 2006-5-25, so it might not be for Vista...

I'll include the script here:
@rem echo off
echo installs and registers (if suitable) all DLLs known to be used by IE.
echo please be patient until it ends
echo Version 1.03 25.05.2006
echo
regsvr32 /s actxprxy.dll
regsvr32 /s asctrls.ocx
regsvr32 /s /i browseui.dll
REM regsvr32 /s /i browseui.dll,NI (unnecessary)
regsvr32 /s cdfview.dll
regsvr32 /s comcat.dll
regsvr32 /s /i /n comctl32.dll
regsvr32 /s corpol.dll
regsvr32 /s cryptdlg.dll
regsvr32 /s /i /n digest.dll
regsvr32 /s dispex.dll
regsvr32 /s dxtmsft.dll
regsvr32 /s dxtrans.dll
regsvr32 /s hlink.dll
regsvr32 /s iepeers.dll
regsvr32 /s /i iesetup.dll
REM iesetup.dll has DllINstall for WinXP,NT4Only,NTx86
regsvr32 /s imgutil.dll
REM regsvr32 /s /i inetcpl.cpl
regsvr32 /s /i /n inetcpl.cpl
regsvr32 /s /i inseng.dll
regsvr32 /s jscript.dll
regsvr32 /s licmgr10.dll
regsvr32 /s mlang.dll
regsvr32 /s mobsync.dll
REM regsvr32 /s msapsspc.dll
REM regsvr32 /s mshta.exe
regsvr32 /s /i mshtml.dll
REM regsvr32 /s /i mshtml.dll,NI
regsvr32 /s mshtmled.dll
regsvr32 /s msident.dll
regsvr32 /s /i msieftp.dll
REM regsvr32 /s msnsspc.dll
REM regsvr32 /s msr2c.dll
regsvr32 /s msrating.dll
regsvr32 /s msxml.dll
regsvr32 /s /i occache.dll
regsvr32 /s oleaut32.dll
regsvr32 /s plugin.ocx
regsvr32 /s pngfilt.dll
regsvr32 /s proctexe.ocx
regsvr32 /s /i scrobj.dll
regsvr32 /s sendmail.dll
REM regsvr32 /s /i setupwbv.dll (not there anymore!)
regsvr32 /s /i shdocvw.dll
REM regsvr32 /s /i shdocvw.dll,NI
regsvr32 /s tdc.ocx
regsvr32 /s /i urlmon.dll
REM regsvr32 /s /i urlmon.dll,NI,HKLM
regsvr32 /s vbscript.dll
regsvr32 /s /i webcheck.dll
regsvr32 /s /i /n wininet.dll
REM added 11.05.2006 Symptom: Add-Ons-Manager menu entry is present but nothing happens
regsvr32 /s extmgr.dll
REM added 12.05.2006 Symptom: Javascript links don't work (Robin Walker) .NET hub file
regsvr32 /s mscoree.dll
REM mscorier.dll
REM mscories.dll
REM IE7 tabbed browser
regsvr32 /s /i ieframe.dll
REM url.dll
REM initpki takes loooong to run, may get commented out, unlikely to be necessary
echo We are almost done except one crypto file
echo but this will take very long, be patient!
regsvr32 /s /i:A initpki.dll
echo
echo all tasks have been finished
@echo on
Click to expand...
Click to expand...

Hi ralfko,
Try this to restore the default Favorite Links to the Navigation pane, right-click a blank area of the Navigation pane, and then click Restore Default Favorite Links.
Regards,
Gil777t
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    Hp c3307c slimline
Re: Empty folder pane in Explorer

Hi Gil777t,
Thanks for replying. :)

I right-clicked on the empty folder-pane (from the navigation-pane), and do not get any menu.
(Clicking on the Favorite part of the navigation-pane gives me the option to "Restore Default Favorite Links". I tried this, but this did not do anything for the folder part).

Futher more: I tried your 'default' link (both in Firefox and IE8.0) but get "The webpage cannot be displayed"

Your link point to: "mshelp://windows/?id=be27e4fc-0da6-4ffb-a100-216bcc8e2879#gtmt_default_def" is this link Ok?
 

My Computer

System One

Re: Empty folder pane in Explorer

ralfko said:
Hi Gil777t,
Thanks for replying. :)

I right-clicked on the empty folder-pane (from the navigation-pane), and do not get any menu.
(Clicking on the Favorite part of the navigation-pane gives me the option to "Restore Default Favorite Links". I tried this, but this did not do anything for the folder part).

Futher more: I tried your 'default' link (both in Firefox and IE8.0) but get "The webpage cannot be displayed"

Your link point to: "mshelp://windows/?id=be27e4fc-0da6-4ffb-a100-216bcc8e2879#gtmt_default_def" is this link Ok?
Click to expand...

I'm sorry that link cannot be shared. I've should have looked before I posted it. What you can do is drag and drop any file/folder from the right window to the pane. I'm at a lost as to why they were dumped in the first place. If there weren't any Virus removal executions recently, then I would say you had a hiccup and ended up with a broken string.
Regards,
Gil777t
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    Hp c3307c slimline
Hi again Gil777t,

are we talking about the same?

I cannot drag anything from the right part of the explorer window to the lower left (the Folders-pane).

I can however do that to the upper left part (the Favorite Links-pane), but i do not have a problem with my favorites... My problem is with the folder-hierarchy.
(Eventually see the picture in my first post..)

But thanks for answering :)
 

My Computer

System One

Hi Brummyfan,

Thanks for your advice, but i both did chkdsk and sfc...
I found no errors at all :(((
It seems a really difficult problem to fix.

More tips?
 

My Computer

System One

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