How to fix the Windows cannot find error [Full Guide]

• Unable to start working due to the annoying Windows cannot find error? The message may pop up when you try to open File Explorer or certain applications.
• If W indows cannot find a file, try to use File Explorer to pinpoint it on your hard drive.
• The W indows cannot find error can be solved by reregistering the apps using our solution.
• You can also use the dedicated third-party software recommended below to fix this annoying issue.

1. Download Restoro PC Repair Tool that comes with Patented Technologies (patent available here).
2. Click Start Scan to find Windows issues that could be causing PC problems.
3. Click Repair All to fix issues affecting your computer’s security and performance

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The Windows cannot find error is one that can occur under alternative circumstances. For some, the issue occurs when trying to open File Explorer with the Win + E hotkey or from the Win + X menu.

For other users, the error message pops up when launching some Windows 10 apps. In both instances, an error message states: Windows cannot find. Make sure you typed the name correctly, and then try again.

If that error message only pops up when you try to open File Explorer, it’s not such a big deal. You can still open that file manager by pressing the taskbar’s File Explorer button or by clicking This PC on the desktop.

However, Windows 10 apps returning that same error message don’t open. This is how you can fix the Windows cannot find error for both Explorer and apps.

How can I solve the Windows cannot find error?

1. Select File Explorer’s This PC option

1. Press the File Explorer icon on the Windows taskbar.
2. Select the View tab in the snapshot directly below.
3. Press the Options button and select Change folder and search options from its menu.
4. That option will open the window directly below. Select This PC from the Open File Explorer to the drop-down menu.
5. Press the Apply and OK buttons on the Folder Options window.

Fixing the Windows cannot find error for File Explorer is more straightforward. Some Windows users have resolved the issue by adjusting the Open File Explorer setting to This PC.

Tired of so many File Explorer issues? Fix them all with the help of this extensive guide.

2. Fix the error using a third-party app

The Windows can’t find error has extremely diverse causes and that is why it can be pretty hard to pinpoint and troubleshoot. So that’s why it’s recommended to use a third-party solution that can fix issues automatically.

The solution we propose below can fix a lot of Windows 10 issues like the ones that occur after updates and even BSoD errors, file corruption problems or missing DLLs.

3. Reregister Windows 10 apps

3.1 Get the App package using PowerShell

1. Right-click the taskbar and select Task Manager.
2. Click File and select Runnew task to open the window directly below.
3. Enter PowerShell in the Open text box and select the Create this task with administrative privileges checkbox.
4. Then click OK to open the window below.
5. Input the following command in PowerShell and press the Enter key. Get-AppXPackage | Foreach
6. Thereafter, reboot the Windows 10 platform.

If Windows 10 apps are showing the Windows cannot find message, resetting the apps is one of the best resolutions.

Reregistering an app is a little like reinstalling it as that deletes app data, but you don’t need to install it again. You can reset Windows 10 apps as follows.

Can’t open Task Manager? Don’t worry, we’ve got the right solution for you.

Reregistering Windows 10 apps with PowerShell will reset all the default apps bundled with the platform. If you need to reregister new apps you’ve installed, you can do so via Settings.

Each listed app has a Reset button that you can press to reregister it as outlined below.

3.2 Reset the apps

1. Press the Start button, and then click the Settings icon.
2. Click Apps to open the app list in the snapshot directly below.
3. Select an app to reset.
4. Click Advanced options to open the app’s Reset option.
5. Press the Reset button, and click Reset again, to reregister the selected app.

4. Open the Microsoft Store App Troubleshooter

1. Press the Win key + I keyboard shortcut to open Settings.
2. Click Update & Security and select Troubleshoot to open a list of troubleshooters as shown below.
3. Select the Windows Store App troubleshooter, and press its Run the troubleshooter button.
4. Press the Next button to go through the troubleshooter‘s resolutions.

The Microsoft Store App troubleshooter might also help fix the Windows cannot find error you are facing. Use the above procedure in that regard.

If the Troubleshooter stops before completing the process, fix it with the help of this complete guide.

4. Rename EXE Files

1. Browse to the folder location of the program that’s showing the error in File Explorer. If the software has a desktop shortcut, you can right-click that icon and select Open file location.
2. Select the program’s EXE in File Explorer, and press the F2 key.
3. Then enter another title for the file, and press the Return key.

The Windows cannot find error can also occur for programs that aren’t Store apps. Then the error message will also include a path for the specific software you’re trying to open.

A particular error is followed by the message Windows cannot find c:program make sure you typed the name correctly. Renaming EXE files is one resolution for errors that include software paths.

Those are a few resolutions that can fix the Windows cannot find error for File Explorer, apps , and other desktop software. Check out this post for further details on how you can fix Windows 10 apps that aren’t opening.

If you have any additional questions, feel free to leave them in the comments section below.

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• Windows cannot find. Make sure you typed the name correctly – Users report getting the simple Windows cannot find message or the one that states Windows cannot find. Make sure you typed the name correctly.
• Windows cannot find. Make sure you typed the name correctly and then try again – That’s another variation of the same core issue. In any case, the above solutions work like a charm.
• Windows cannot find file – Even if you are using Windows 10 licensed, chances are you’ll encounter this error sooner or later. Try booting your computer in Safe mode or use Microsoft’s Security Scanner.
• Windows cannot find filename.exe – If that’s the issue you are dealing with, don’t hesitate to rename the EXE file.

Frequently Asked Questions

What does Windows cannot find error mean?

There are times when the error message shows up when you try to open File Explorer, so select File Explorer’s This PC option and get rid of it for good, as detailed in this quick guide.

When does Windows cannot find error show up?

Plenty of users report that they have received the same error message when opening an application. We have an excellent error to fix the Windows cannot find error.

What does it mean when Windows cannot access the specified device path or file?

When getting this error message, it usually means that the file is blocked by Windows. Here’s what to do if Windows cannot access the specified device path or file.

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on my system the problem turned out to be a change in permissions probably caused by a w10 update. Admin accounts were denied access to user account files. So if a user downloaded a new app and ran the install pgm, the after entering the pw into the User Account Control the pgm could not be found. Solution: share the folder with the Admin (or Everyone).

1) Already set to “This PC”
2) “this file doesn’t have an app associated with it…” (it is there though)
3) “There was a problem and this can’t continue”
4) Wouldn’t let me rename
Basically my computer can’t find many exe filetypes even when I’m literally double-clicking (or right-click, open) on them.

This problem started after a PC shutdown during a forced Windows update. I had no idea it was updating, there was no indication on the screen whatsoever, looked like screen was frozen. I gave it a few minutes and still appeared frozen (just a dark screen with no text, loading bar or any sort of motion, just a solid color screen and nothing else). There really needs to be some sort of indication that an update is being forced.

I tried to reinstall the Windows 10 OS and it doesn’t allow me to go through with that either. It lets me run the command prompt, but not as administrator, so I don’t know if there is something (maybe in safe mode) that I can type in cmd prompt that will fix this issue?

I’m also unable to install Windows updates. These latest updates failed:

1) 2019-06 Cumulative Update for Windows 10 Version 1803 for x64-based Systems (KB4503286) – Error 0x8007007e

2) 2019-06 Security Update for Adobe Flash Player for Windows 10 Version 1803 for x64-based Systems (KB4503308) – Error 0x8007007e

The “retry” option never works and the troubleshooter doesn’t help. I’ve already tried manually downloading the windows update files linked from some troubleshooter. The downloads worked, just not the installation.

I tried “retry” again and it added a 3rd failed update:

3) 2019-02 Update for Windows 10 Version 1803 for x64-based Systems (KB4346084) – Error 0x8007007e

Thank you very much for your comment. We are glad our guide helped you. Don’t forget to come back on our site for more news and fixes.

Unable to find elements on IE 11, Windows Server 2012 R2 #826

Comments

daviande commented Jul 23, 2015

We are having some issues finding elements using WebdriverJS with IE 11 on Windows Server 2012 R2. The same code works fine on Windows 7/8/8.1, so I’m pretty sure that points to some sort of configuration issue on our side.

And it results in:

Anyone have any suggestions on what configuration we can check? Are there any known issues with Selenium on Windows Server 2012 R2?

The text was updated successfully, but these errors were encountered:

swqajunkie commented Jul 28, 2015

Any solution for this? Im getting the same issue.

manand77 commented Aug 27, 2015

Any updates on this? I am stuck with the same error. Any suggestions?

swqajunkie commented Sep 1, 2015

HI. My solution was not to run it on windows 2012 server and stick with win professional.

yanivrefael commented Sep 6, 2015

same error for me

merike commented Oct 1, 2015

I’m getting a different error but not finding any elements either after navigating to page:

org.openqa.selenium.NoSuchWindowException: Unable to find element on closed window (WARNING: The server did not provide any stacktrace information)
Command duration or timeout: 31 milliseconds
Build info: version: ‘2.47.1’, revision: ‘411b314’, time: ‘2015-07-30 03:03:16’
System info: host: ‘hostname’, ip: ‘10.1.210.147’, os.name: ‘Windows Server 2012 R2’, os.arch: ‘amd64’, os.version: ‘6.3’, java.version: ‘1.8.0_60’
Driver info: org.openqa.selenium.ie.InternetExplorerDriver
Capabilities []
Session ID: 992f43c9-a8ca-499d-b81a-0bfff1219621
*** Element info:
at java.lang.reflect.Constructor.newInstance(Constructor.java:422)
at org.openqa.selenium.remote.ErrorHandler.createThrowable(ErrorHandler.java:206)
at org.openqa.selenium.remote.ErrorHandler.throwIfResponseFailed(ErrorHandler.java:158)
at org.openqa.selenium.remote.RemoteWebDriver.execute(RemoteWebDriver.java:595)
at org.openqa.selenium.remote.RemoteWebDriver.findElement(RemoteWebDriver.java:348)
at org.openqa.selenium.remote.RemoteWebDriver.findElementByTagName(RemoteWebDriver.java:413)
at org.openqa.selenium.By$ByTagName.findElement(By.java:331)
at org.openqa.selenium.remote.RemoteWebDriver.findElement(RemoteWebDriver.java:340)

Is there any way to figure out what goes wrong?

merike commented Oct 1, 2015

I found that if I added a sleep before navigating to test page and pressed F12 to open dev tools on it then following commands succeeded. Which after some googling revealed that I accidentally set up FEATURE_BFCACHE for 32bit system on a 64bit machine. Feeling silly now, but at least the test works 🙂

sophiaatif commented Mar 15, 2016

I have the same issue, as «swqajunkie» said, dont run it on windows server, I did shift everything from server to windows 7 machine but the error is still same. Today i updated the IEDriverServer as its changelog said it will fix the issue of not finding elements but instead it throws this exception:

Unable to cast object of type ‘System.Collections.Generic.Dictionary`2[System.String,System.Object]’ to type ‘OpenQA.Selenium.Proxy’.

As the same code works with the previous versions so I’m assuming its the driver issue, but still the issue remains. Also I found an article saying that Selenium was not designed to work with RC Server,
here

So we should move everything to windows 7/8? or wait for the fix? If upgrading to 2.52.2 fixed someone’s issue then please let me know.

jimevans commented Mar 15, 2016

@sophiaatif Can you please post the line of code that produces that exception? I do not understand how the .NET bindings would be attempting to parse a JSON response as a Proxy object from a call to FindElement or FindElements .

vroonarora commented Jan 4, 2018 •

Running my tests on R2 2012 only, and got the same error as @merike .. Solved it in a similar fashion by navigating back to the IDE and then to IE 11 again.

@daviande : I’d suggest to check the config again.

1. Ignore zoom level — true
2. Ignore protected mode settings — true

diemol commented May 20, 2020

Closing as the issue went stale, but in addition wee never got any more information.

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