Place a Video CD inside your PC, launch Explorer, and attempt to copy its files. The copy window locks up, the machine ceases to respond, and the sole remedy is a hard restart. That is the essence of the flaw that has plagued Windows Explorer for years, and it still goes unpatched.
The problem is not a rare edge case for hobbyists. It is a stability failure that affects the operating system itself, and it has been reproducible across multiple versions of Windows. The bug first appeared with the monthly updates 2023-03 (KB5023706) for Windows 11 and 2023-04 (KB5025221) for Windows 10. Earlier builds of Windows 10 and Windows 11 22H2 with no updates do not have this issue.
How To Break Explorer
A Video CD comes from downloading a file, extracting it, and burning it using software that handles bin+cue images, such as AnyBurn. Once that is done, open Explorer and move the contents of the Video CD over to the PC. You can limit the copy to the MPEGAV folder, since that is where the large multimedia files sit.
When copying slows down to nothing and stops, Windows Explorer gets damaged. Closing the copy window and ejecting the VCD may make it seem like things are back to normal, but they are not. Newly added files and folders fail to appear unless you force a refresh on the view. Certain parts of the operating system’s user interface start acting strange, and the Windows Explorer process itself becomes unresponsive to restart attempts.
Windows refuses to restart softly; instead it gets stuck on the Restarting screen indefinitely. The sole remedy involves pressing the restart or power button directly.
Why Video CDs Are Different
What Video CDs really are differs from how they present themselves. In Windows Explorer, they look like ordinary data discs, but they are not. Linux treats their files differently than Windows does, and this difference has led to complaints from users over the years.
VCDs resemble ordinary iso9660 filesystems, yet they differ from them. The directory entries within a VCD direct to the beginning of files rather than to actual file contents, and trying to work with those entries for any other purpose sends you off the disk because the data is invalid. Usually, when you copy a VCD, your goal is to get the still images, menus, CD audio, i-frame index, and similar material. Using dd to copy the disk preserves its structure, while pulling the files off the way Windows does destroys it.
The first track of the mounted VCD shows a ~600 MB file, which is not a genuine file at all. Instead, it is an ISO gateway, put there to let Windows manage such tracks. Since Windows does not permit raw device access to applications, its iso9660 driver instead pretends to read the tracks within this file. Under Linux, users cannot copy or play these files; they hold nothing but garbage.
It works under Windows because the driver makes the track appear to exist. Copying a Video CD via Explorer was never the ideal method for getting the content, and an update to Windows in early 2023 altered something that affects that process.
What Triggers The Bug
Reproducing the bug is inconsistent, though it often shows up when using a virtual CD drive. A physical CD tends to be more reliable for getting it to happen — perhaps since the copying takes longer and gives the bug more time to surface. If the first attempt fails, remove the copied files, restart the system, and give it another try.
The VCD content plays without issue in Windows Media Player, and neither does extracting it with an app like VCDGear. Copying files with a third-party app such as FastCopy or TeraCopy works fine — so long as the app does not rely on the standard Windows method for copying. Total Commander uses that method by default, which is what triggers the bug.
Reproducing the bug is not always possible, though it has appeared across multiple systems, including untouched Windows installations. A handful of reports from others describe comparable problems.
What Happens Next
Microsoft has received a report about the issue via the Feedback Hub at the end of 2025, and since then has not offered any reply — neither confirmation nor fix nor word of acknowledgment. True, the problem is a rare one that almost nobody runs into these days. Still, a flaw that can shake a system’s stability carries some urgency in my view.
If you want to copy a Video CD correctly, it’s best to use specialized software like VCDGear, which takes out the AV content and attempts to correct any mpeg stream errors. Alternatively, you can make an exact copy of the entire VCD using imaging software and save it as a bin+cue image.
| Method | Triggers the bug |
|---|---|
| Copying in Explorer | Yes |
| Playing in Windows Media Player | No |
| Extracting with VCDGear | No |
| Copying with FastCopy/TeraCopy | No |
| Copying with Total Commander | Yes |
The problem stems from Windows treating Video CDs as though they were ordinary data discs, despite the format underneath being something else entirely. A solution could bring back the old approach, stop copying VCD files altogether, or point users toward other methods instead. Any of these approaches would be an improvement over leaving the system unstable.
At present, the guidance is straightforward: should you wish to duplicate a Video CD, reach for a dedicated app instead. Explorer itself is not built for this task.
Source material: “Video CDs Break Windows Explorer,” clydesnotes.blogspot.com.
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