Games of the Xbox app cause a crash loop of explorer.exe on Windows startup

CrazyGeekMan · Dec 20, 2021

Hi !

This post is a duplice of this one which was written in French (I chose bad category):

https://answers.microsoft.com/fr-fr...usent-un/539d43de-0f31-4bd4-bf3a-a762c43d191b

I would appreciate if a Xbox app developer or the team in charge of integrity & stability of Windows could read my message.

Not so loong ago, I fell into a situation where my OS was totally instable after the installation of a game from Xbox app. Here is the topic linked to this past issue : https://answers.microsoft.com/fr-fr...onnexion/46a30a26-c44a-4a8f-8f7f-f4aec53ffc35

I finally noticed that after the uninstalling of "Donut Country", "the problem" was resolved.

I retrace my steps : it's the Xbox app inner workings which cause the instability of Windows in specific cases.

I just installed the game "Stardew Valley" and the problem come back after the system restarting (explorer crash loop : impossible to kill the explorer process from the task manager, twinking of the taskbar, losing of the window focus, a lot of graphical issues).

Once again, the issue disappeared after the game uninstalling.

Deduction : the game developers aren't guilty ! Something going wrong with the Xbox app inner workings..

For those who have the technical capacity to solve the issue (which is not the least because this instability causes on my system a system memory overflow), here is a link explaining a probable line of thought : https://forum.level1techs.com/t/xbo...ack-screen-flickering-flashing-taskbar/170929

I'm in the same position as the guy from the above post : the WindowApps folder isn't on the C: drive (I wanted to install all of my games on the D: drive).

This is not an isolated case, no patch exists.. : https://www.reddit.com/r/XboxGamePass/comments/q8kurb/explorerexe_crash_loop_at_startup_after/

I would be delighted if an competent team looks into the issue

Currently, I can't plenty enjoy my Xbox pass..

Thank you for reading !

:)

XBF-Spartan

Hi CrazyGreekMan,

Thanks for your reply. I would like to keep a clean install as our last resort if possible. Can I ask what are your pc specs?

XBF-Spartan

Hi CrazyGreekMan,

Thanks for reaching out to the forums! We are sorry to hear about your issue and would like to help out. Before we recommend any troubleshooting steps can I ask what type of hard drive you are installing your games to and how is the hard drive formatted?

CrazyGeekMan

Hi,

Thank you for your response.

My OS is installed on a SDD NVMe drive and the Xbox app's games on a SATA hard drive.

Both of them is formatted in NTFS.

CrazyGeekMan

Hi XBF-Spartan,

Sorry for the delay, have a happy new year !

I did the test and I have the same result..

I noticed the loop stops after some minutes and then explorer opens normally.

This time the same game "Stardew Valley" has been installed from the Microsoft Store to the C:\Program Files\WindowsApps folder.

So now I have no idea, the issue is not from Xbox app nor from the external disk..

Must I do a complete Windows reinstallation ? Is there a way to diagnose the issue ?

Thank you !

XBF-Spartan

Hi CrazyGreekMan,

Thanks for your reply. Does this the issue still persist when you install games directly from the Microsoft Store rather than the Xbox App?

Games of the Xbox app cause a crash loop of explorer.exe on Windows startup