System.Runtime.InteropServices.COMException

Microsoft PowerToys version

0.86.0.0

Installation method

Microsoft Store

Area(s) with issue?

General

Steps to reproduce

I clicked an explorer shortcut on my taskbar to open a folder.

✔️ Expected Behavior

Folder opens.

❌ Actual Behavior

Pc froze for a few seconds, music playing was lagging (kinda like it played the same .1s over and over). Tried a second time, same thing, screen went dark for a few seconds then slowly came back (black windows on orange background, then was ok and I got the error message).

Upload Bug Report ZIP-file

2026-04-13.txt

Additional Information

Possibly also related to Unity 3D crashing at the same time. Can't tell if the issue was caused by Unity or PowerToys, both seem to have crashed at the same time:

Failed to present D3D11 swapchain due to device reset/removed. This error can happen if you draw or dispatch very expensive workloads to the GPU, which can cause Windows to detect a GPU Timeout and reset the device. (see https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/drivers/display/timeout-detection-and-recovery). if you believe this error is due to built-in Unity functionality, please submit a bug. This is an unrecoverable error and the editor will shut down.

Other Software

No response

Start with the attached bug report ZIP and reproduce the Explorer shortcut action described in the issue. No source file, test, or PowerToys component is identified, and the report also mentions a simultaneous Unity GPU device reset. Done would require isolating whether PowerToys caused the freeze and error before defining a targeted fix and regression test.