Just hoping this message might help me find out what is blocking File Explorer functioning. This problem occurs when trying to open File Explorer in any of the usual ways (e.g. Win E, or click on the start menu icon etc etc) but also affects browsing when file saving from most apps (including TextPad, which pops up the error message). When WIN E is used there appears to be a slight tremor in any open window border as if File Explorer is trying to pop up a dialogue, or just nothing happens. It works in safe view so I'm guessing that a third party app is affecting it. Just need to find which app that might be!
Win 11 Home, just upgraded to 24H2 in case that helped (it didn't)
AMD Ryzen 5 5600X 6-Core Processor 3.70 GHz
A common dialog box returned error 0x0002
Moderators: AmigoJack, bbadmin, helios, Bob Hansen, MudGuard
Re: A common dialog box returned error 0x0002
Microsoft's documentation for error 2 states "The common dialog box function failed during initialization. This error often occurs when sufficient memory is not available".
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/api/commdlg/nf-commdlg-commdlgextendederror
Seems an unlikely cause, given the spec of your PC.
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/api/commdlg/nf-commdlg-commdlgextendederror
Seems an unlikely cause, given the spec of your PC.
Re: A common dialog box returned error 0x0002
Sysinternals/Russinovich's Autoruns lists you "everything" that is started automatically, and you can filter out Windows' own components. Go through the list and investigate on everything where you question yourself why it exists.
However, NirSoft's ShellMenuView (context menu items of Explorer) and Shell Extensions Manager might list even more entries. Same advice here: read all list items and especially keep an eye on third party software that claim a feature which you never used (this also includes your graphics card vendor).
There's also at least the question "How to list Explorer extensions and disable them?" on Super User with multiple answers.
In theory you can damage your Windows installation by disabling too much, but with a minimum of common sense (speak: trying out a few items instead of selecting all at once) you shouldn't be able to achieve that. You may accidentally also disable a feature which you do use and may want to enable it again - that's why you shouldn't change too many items at once.
Also you may want to attach a screenshot of what you describe here.
However, NirSoft's ShellMenuView (context menu items of Explorer) and Shell Extensions Manager might list even more entries. Same advice here: read all list items and especially keep an eye on third party software that claim a feature which you never used (this also includes your graphics card vendor).
There's also at least the question "How to list Explorer extensions and disable them?" on Super User with multiple answers.
In theory you can damage your Windows installation by disabling too much, but with a minimum of common sense (speak: trying out a few items instead of selecting all at once) you shouldn't be able to achieve that. You may accidentally also disable a feature which you do use and may want to enable it again - that's why you shouldn't change too many items at once.
Also you may want to attach a screenshot of what you describe here.