Option 1 – Try to restart the Explorer.exe process
The first thing you can do is try to restart the Explorer.exe process. To do so, refer to these steps:- First, right-click on the Taskbar and select the Task Manager.
- Next, expand the Task Manager window to see all the active processes.
- From there, look for the Windows Explorer process, right-click on it and select Restart.
- After that, check if the error is now fixed.
Option 2 – Run System File Checker scan
If restarting the explorer.exe process didn’t work, you can also try running the System File Checker or SFC scan to fix the error. System File Checker is a command utility built into your computer that helps restore corrupted files and missing files. Refer to the following steps to run it:- Hit the Win + R keys to launch Run.
- Type in cmd in the field and tap Enter.
- After opening Command Prompt, type in this command: sfc /SCANFILE=c:windowsexplorer.exe
- Wait until the process is completed and then restart your computer.
Option 3 – Run the DISM tool
You might also want to run the DISM tool. This tool is known to repair potentially corrupted files in your system as having them could also system issues like the “System call failed” error. To repair these corrupted system files, you can run the DISM commands:- Tap the Win + X keys and click on the “Command Prompt (Admin)” option.
- After that, input each one of the commands listed below sequentially to execute them:
- Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /CheckHealth
- Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /ScanHealth
- Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth
- Once you’ve executed the commands given above, restart your computer and check if the problem is now fixed.
Option 4 – Try running the Check Disk utility
- In the Windows Search box, type “command prompt” and from the search results, right-click on Command Prompt and select “Run as administrator”.
- After opening Command Prompt, type this command and tap Enter: chkdsk c: /f /r
- The command you entered will start to check for errors and fix them automatically. Else, it will throw an error message saying, “Chkdsk cannot run because the volume is in use by another process. Would you like the schedule this volume to be checked the next time the system restarts? (Y/N)”.
- Tap the Y key to schedule Disk Check the next time your computer restarts.
Option 5 – Put your computer in a Clean Boot State
As pointed out, there are some instances that some conflicting programs installed in your computer might be the one that triggers the “System call failed” error to appear when you try to open File Explorer. To identify which program is causing the problem, you need to put your computer in a Clean Boot State. To do so, follow the steps below.- Log onto your PC as an administrator.
- Type in MSConfig in the Start Search to open the System Configuration utility.
- From there, go to the General tab and click “Selective startup”.
- Clear the “Load Startup items” check box and make sure that the “Load System Services” and “Use Original boot configuration” options are checked.
- Next, click the Services tab and select the “Hide All Microsoft Services” check box.
- Click Disable all.
- Click on Apply/OK and restart your PC. (This will put your PC into a Clean Boot State. And configure Windows to use the usual startup, just simply undo the changes.)
- Once your computer has restarted in a Clean Boot State, perform your scan again and see if it now works, and then start to isolate the problem by checking which one of the programs you installed recently is the root cause of the problem.
Option 6 – Try to uninstall the programs you’ve installed recently
In case you don’t know, freeware software packages aren’t always free as some of them could contain malicious software that can cause serious damage to your computer. Thus, if you have installed a program recently prior to getting the “System call failed” error, then you have to uninstall that program.- Tap the Win + R keys to open the Run dialog box.
- Then type “appwiz.cpl” in the field and tap Enter to open the Programs and Features in Control Panel.
- Next, arrange the list of installed programs in the order of the installation date.
- After that, look for the problematic program and right-click on it, and then select Uninstall.
- Once the process is done, restart your computer and see if the error is fixed.

Inside personalization, click on the Lock Screen tab.
On the right screen, under the picture, you will find Windows spotlight, click on it to bring a drop-down menu up.
Your choice is presented as a single picture for background or slideshow, a series of pictures that are going to be looped in a given time interval.
If you would like just a single picture for your background, choose that and click on it.
Once you are in choose picture dialog, click on the browse button and navigate to the picture on your storage which you would like to have as a background.
If however, you fancy slideshow as your lock screen background, click on the background drop-down menu and choose the slideshow. Next, click on add a folder and navigate to a folder where you have pictures that you would like to have as a slideshow for your Windows lock screen.

