TechTips: Client Does Not Support Opening This List with Windows Explorer - How to Fix It

If you use SharePoint at all then you know it has many different issues that are weird and quirky. Often times it will drive you crazy trying to get something simple done. I have found yet another strange error that occurs quite frequently and is actually very easy to fix. That error is when the Explorer View won't work and you get the message "Your Client Does Not Support Opening this list with Windows Explorer".

When you are viewing content in SharePoint there are different views you can choose from, which are basically different ways for you to see the content. Well a lot of users prefer one view to another and a common view choice is Explorer View, which is much like the treed structure that Windows uses. This view is great when it works, to choose this view you simply select your view drop down and change it to Explorer View and it displays the content in that view for you.

The problem is that it doesn't always work the way it should often times you get the error "Your Client Does Not Support Opening this list with Windows Explorer" and many people think there isn't anything you can do about it. Well that isn't true there is a simple fix that will make the problem go away, all you need to do is turn on your WebClient Service and it will work again.

So you are probably saying ok well how do I do that? It's very simple, follow these instructions and you will be viewing your SharePoint content in Explorer View in no time.

1. Click Start
2. Click Run (if you are using Vista and have Aero interface turned on this is the same as the search bar)
3. Type in Services.msc and hit enter
4. In the services window scroll down to the WebClient Service
5. Right click on the service and choose START
6. Once it has started go back to your SharePoint window and choose the Explorer View again
7. It should work!

Now if the service was already started then you have a different problem and this guide can't help you. I would suggest checking more sources on Google. The Your Client Does Not Support Opening this list with Windows Explorer is a pretty common error and I haven't seen a lot of documentation on how to fix this problem, only that it is a problem, so I hope this guide gets you going again.