14 DAY TRIAL // Windows 10 already comes with advanced antivirus protection, as Windows Defender (now called Microsoft Defender) is offered pre-loaded on the operating system, but as we know already, many people still prefer to use third-party products for several reasons.
And of course, as one of the leading names in the cybersecurity world, Bitdefender is often the preferred choice for plenty of Windows 10 users.
But some of those running Windows 10 Insider builds and Bitdefender antivirus on their computers recently came across that made it impossible to continue running the operating system. And it was all because explorer.exe was crashing repeatedly, in some cases leading to a black screen that required a forced reboot.
The fix is part of the latest Windows Insider build
Manually restarting explorer.exe made no difference, but removing the Bitdefender software brought things back to normal, though it goes without saying this wasn’t necessarily the best way to go for those who wanted to keep their antivirus protection on all the time.
The latest Windows 10 preview build finally resolves the whole thing, with Microsoft explaining that users need to install the most recent version of the Bitdefender security software to receive the patch.
“An issue has been fixed where devices with Bitdefender installed experienced a black screen and/or explorer.exe crashes. Resolving the issue requires an update to the Bitdefender software,” the company explains in the release notes of the latest preview build.
The fix was announced with the release of Windows 10 21332, which brings several other notable changes, including the removal of Paint 3D and 3D Viewer as pre-installed apps on the operating system. Microsoft says these would no longer be offered as pre-loaded, with users allowed to install them on their computers from the Microsoft Store just like any other Windows 10 app.