AE 2018 crashes when I click "File" on Windows 10

[im_thatoneguy]

Opens fine but then I hit "file" and it freezes. No CPU % activity.  No memory change.  Just hard frozen.

[dj.summitt]

Do you have any plugins/scripts installed?
Can you post the info on the crash from Event Viewer?

[im_thatoneguy]

I have quite a few plugins installed, but it's not crashing during loading. And it's not really crashing it's just freezing.  The app runs smoothly until I click File.  I can hover over buttons and they all highlight and respond smoothly.  The app is fine until I try to open files.

The program AfterFX.exe version 15.0.0.180 stopped interacting with Windows and was closed. To see if more information about the problem is available, check the problem history in the Security and Maintenance control panel.

Process ID: 4cf8

Start Time: 01d34f7d33b0b556

Termination Time: 14

Application Path: C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe After Effects CC 2018\Support Files\AfterFX.exe

Report Id: ebef684b-7917-4511-8e79-c14cb69e0755

Faulting package full name:

Faulting package-relative application ID:

[im_thatoneguy]

Hey if I wait 5 minutes it responds! But then if I close AE and reopen it, it freezes again so it's not a one-time thing.   

[im_thatoneguy]

And it's exclusively the file menu.  I can open Help, Window, View, Animation, Effect, Layer, Composition, Edit... HANG.

[im_thatoneguy · Accepted solution]

"Fixed" it.  If I disable the Start window in preferences (once it eventually unhangs) I can start the app and click file immediately.  It's a bug in the Start window which only manifests once you click File.