Windows Explorer Crashing (Windows 8)

So I've had this computer for a little over a year now and the past like 6 months windows explorer has been acting somewhat bizarrely, when I right click a file it sometimes takes ages (like 20-30 seconds) before the drop down list appears, other times it happens instantly. When I use 'save as' it occasionally crashes too, which is the most frustrating thing ever, because it almost never actually saves and just crashes and loses everything it even crashes Notepad which I didn't think was possible.

Just wondering if anyone has experienced anything similar or might be able to suggest something to fix it? I don't really know what I'm doing and I don't wanna make it worse ;_;

Have you checked for viruses?

Have you checked for viruses?

Yup, found none.

This sounds like an issue with something running in the background and taking up more resources than it should. Did you do any updates to certain software or the OS itself shortly before the issue began?

This sounds like an issue with something running in the background and taking up more resources than it should. Did you do any updates to certain software or the OS itself shortly before the issue began?

Can't remember that far back, might've been after I updated to Windows 8.1 though.. I disabled pretty much everything from starting after I boot up and it made my computer overall a little faster but didn't do anything to fix this issue.

multiple links on google point towards two common solutions/factors: Windows defender being disabled fixes the supposed lag/slowness of explorer overall, and using the 'refresh my PC' feature fixes the crashing entirely. Though from what I read using the refresh my PC option uninstalls programs or something to that extent, so backing up may be necessary. I don't know if you've already tried this stuff or not though.

multiple links on google point towards two common solutions/factors: Windows defender being disabled fixes the supposed lag/slowness of explorer overall, and using the 'refresh my PC' feature fixes the crashing entirely. Though from what I read using the refresh my PC option uninstalls programs or something to that extent, so backing up may be necessary. I don't know if you've already tried this stuff or not though.

I already had Windows Defender disabled which didn't change anything, I got frustrated with it a while ago and tried a few things but couldn't fix it and accepted defeat, but I lost 750 words of a 1500 word assignment because it crashed microsoft word while trying to save earlier so I have been kicked into action again

I didn't try the refresh my PC thing because it uninstalls all my programs but I'll try that tomorrow afternoon, I don't have the patience to do it at 11pm when I have to be up at 6 the next day ;_; thanks for the pointers!