Just today I faced this error message and it was really cumbersome. Ultimately I was successful to solve it. Description: This error message box continuously comes even after you close it. So, except ‘Task Manager’ you can’t operate/open anything.
Root Cause:
One of the possible cause of this error is ‘Corrupt File‘ in any of the below scenarios,
- If your desktop is containing any corrupt file then you will keep getting this error continuously.
- If opened explorer is containing any ‘corrupt file’ then this error message comes, when you click ‘Restart Program’, opened window gets closed and error disappears.
Solution that will not work for above scenarios:
System Restore: After system restore, problem still persists.
Safe Mode: It keeps coming in safe mode also. 
Solution:
If you are in great hurry then login as different user and error will not come (In case of desktop containing corrupt file).
Anyhow you need to delete the corrupt file. There are number of ways. Let me describe one of them,
- Press CTRL+ALT+DEL to start Task Manager
- Click on ‘New Task’
- Enter ‘cmd’ and hit OK to start the command prompt
- Go to the path of desktop containing corrupt/suspicious file and delete it.
- e.g. In Windows Vista, “cd c:\Users\<User Name>\Desktop\” and Then to delete file, “del xyz.avi”
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Nice solution.
I was encoding a video when this problem appeared. searched lots of threads with lot of bla bla… however your solution is very effective, fast and straightforward.
cheers!!!
Your fix worked. My problem was caused when I followed instructions on another post somewhere that places all the microsoft system tool in a desktop folder called GodMode. If you stumble across this post I would not advise implementing it. It has just caused me three weeks of heartache searching for a solution to the “Windows explorer has stopped working problem”
Chucking the Godmode folder in the recycle bin cured the problem in 3 seconds flat