topic Re: 2013 Inventor File Explorer Completely Blank in Inventor Forum

2013 Inventor File Explorer Completely Blank

Anonymous — Mon, 10 Feb 2020 14:46:42 GMT

I am running Inventor 2013 Ultimate on Windows 7, and as of this morning, I can not view any files or folders in my explorer. I have selected "All Files" for file type, but I can not even see my drives or standard folders that would usually show regardless of the selection for "Files of type". I know there was an update recently for Windows 7, and don't know if this is related. Anyone else have this issue?

As a work around, I am able to use the standard Windows File Explorer, find the file, and open it there. I have not had an issue with this method for parts or assemblies. But needless to say that is very cumbersome and not an ideal situation.

Re: 2013 Inventor File Explorer Completely Blank

Mark.Lancaster — Mon, 10 Feb 2020 14:58:52 GMT

@Anonymous

Have you restarted Inventor?

Re: 2013 Inventor File Explorer Completely Blank

Anonymous — Mon, 10 Feb 2020 15:02:16 GMT

Restarted Inventor, Restarted the Computer, Uninstalled and reinstalled Inventor...

But as I am working on this I am starting to believe it is a Windows issue. My file explorer is not working properly inside any programs. The only file explorer that is working is the Windows file explorer. Has to be related to the update since there were glitches I am seeing posted online.

Re: 2013 Inventor File Explorer Completely Blank

johnsonshiue — Mon, 10 Feb 2020 23:32:12 GMT

Hi! Try a few things. Use Task Manager to kill explorer.exe and run "explorer.exe" again. Start up a command line window (CMD). Execute the following command. Make sure all critical Windows updates are installed.

"C:\Program Files\Autodesk\Inventor 2013\Bin\Inventor.exe /install"

Does it work better now?

Many thanks!

Re: 2013 Inventor File Explorer Completely Blank

Mark.Lancaster — Tue, 11 Feb 2020 00:07:57 GMT

@johnsonshiue

In my community I've heard a couple of others having this issue on newer versions of Inventor.

So I'm interested if the info you provided to @Anonymous will resolve the issue. 😁

Re: 2013 Inventor File Explorer Completely Blank

Anonymous — Tue, 11 Feb 2020 13:56:55 GMT

Thank you so much for the help. This fixed all the issues with my Windows 7 update including the file explorer inside programs and the error "You do not have permission to restart this computer". Must of been a bug with the explorer.exe file.

I did your first suggestion, ended the explorer.exe process, then restarted it in the task manager. Restarted my computer and the change held.

Re: 2013 Inventor File Explorer Completely Blank

ampster40 — Tue, 11 Feb 2020 18:17:02 GMT

Mark, we're on Inventor 2019 Pro and that issue just started yesterday. We are told it's from an updated virus definition and were advised to reboot our systems. While that worked for a couple of us, one of us had the issue this morning. Not sure if any of this helps but throwing it out there.

Re: 2013 Inventor File Explorer Completely Blank

johnsonshiue — Wed, 12 Feb 2020 00:09:11 GMT

Hi Guys,

This kind of issue is usually registration related. For whatever reason, Inventor is not properly registered in Windows. Either Inventor did not get installed properly, or the registry was not written completely. Or, Windows failed to do certain tasks due to security settings or user profile setting. It is a combination of many things. The quickest thing to do is to force it to register again. The same technique can apply to other programs too (Excel or Word).

Many thanks!