explorer.exe hangs/crashes

[bggangel]

My problem was the same and the context menu didn't show up when selecting files (folders did work).
Removing the following key did the trick for me (probably the same result as uninstalling Divx)

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\*\shellex\Cont extMenuHandlers\EncodeDivXExt]

[ByteBack]

Forget IE.

Run Mozilla! It keeps the Pop-ups at bay and it's way more secure then Internet Exployter.

Mozilla

You'll be up and surfing in no time!

[pontiacMan]

I'm gonna agree with the last post. I was have IE probs a little while ago. Got Mozilla Firefox and i think its much better. They also have this cool tab feature...

[Jim7]

Got anther explorer.exe failure last week. The Q329692 patch to the "duser.dll" is apparently not the answer to explorer.exe crash.

[Jim7]

Gotta agree about Mozilla versus IE, but note that this thread is about windows explorer.exe crashes, which is totally different than IE. In windows, "explorer.exe" is your windows session (GUI, desktop, taskbar, mouse, keyboard input), whereas IE is a separate executable process that uses windows. Yeah, "Exployter" ;-)

[Happydog]

Buck,
Don't know if you got this problem fixed yet, but like you none of the well intended advice in this thread worked for me either. But then I stumbled onto the words about Spy Sweeper messing up someone's system and looked into issues with the Context Menus and got just the advice needed to stop the problems with IE at:


Hope this helps you buddy.

Cheers
Aston

[buck]

Guys,

1. Thanks for all the responses.
2. The problem was related to Explorer.....not Internet Explorer.
3. I'm already using Mozilla Firefox and absolutely loving it!!
4. I haven't had an explorer error since installing SP2 (obviously SP2 changed that dodgy ntdll.dll file).
5. Only prob. now is a bit of a niggle with my Add/Remove programs list... (I've got a huge space in the middle of the list).

thanks again,

Buck

[satan]

Check the post by ntdllMan at the bottom of this thread

http://forums.winxpcentral.com/showthread.php?p=29094

[amirfish]

i have the same problem and the notice reads:
AppName:explorer.exe AppVer:6.0.2900.2180 ModName vid.dll ModVer:0.0.0.0 offset:00047d0f .i tried drivers from xvid&downloaded the sp2 please any ideas?

[braindead]

I tell all my people at work to remove webshots. It in itself isn't bad but it's freeware that is very intrusive to your system. Spyware kinda stuff.

[ElllisD]

this is the kind of thing that annoys the hell outta me-- i just reinstalled xp about a month ago & here i am again w/ all kinds of explorer.exe quirks--- thank you all for your suggestions.... the duser.dll solution seems to have helped some, however, the problems are so intermittent i cant really say with confidence.... the ms hotfix checker seems to crash right after it runs--- or maybe its supposed to close itself without telling me what its done-- typical ms design, i guess... im glad to see that spysweeper causes other people problems...not to be a dick like that, but its points to a solution at least... needless to say..it's outta here now.
When my taskbar crashes, sometimes it'll restart in taskbar form, and other times it'll restart in explorer window form. in addition to the explorer bar crashing, im also having context menu problems... for example the open with command stopped cascading, i no longer have the "edit" option for bat files... i only get "open", "open with" "start hi priority" options on occasion, whereas they used to always be there.. I havent seen a pattern as to what causes it, either.. Plus, now explorer.exe ignores command line instructions for it to open in a specified folder as dictated in the shortcut anymore... and the "find target" button in shortcut properties opens in My Documents just like everything else... The only customized things that seem to be unaffected are my places bar locations, and the default install partition. A year or so ago, I had problems w/ the taskbar crashing and the wfp check fixed it, but now its just a tangled mess no matter what i do. the taskbar hasnt crashed in an hour, which is nice, but im reluctant to call it solved... windows is never that good to me. lol

[mrCodeE]

You know...I've had the same problems with my explorer.exe crashing....then using 99% cpu load... I found out that the culprit was Symantec's new versions of their antivirus. I am using 9.0 corporate ed. and ever since I moved up from 8.1 it's been nothing but hanging, and full cpus load on explorer.exe. The only way that I can seem to bring it down is to kill symantec's processes. Defwatch.exe, ccEvtmgr.exe, etc. As soon as I kill these processes, then explorer.exe will drop it's load on the cpu, and the mem usage for it will from from 60mb to about 6-7mb. Not sure what it is...and can't find anything in symantec's site about it. this has happened to every machine, (12 different machines), that I have put 9.0 on to. I always have to resort back to 8.1.

[posidrive]

According to Microsoft: "By default, when the system cannot find the target file for a shortcut (.lnk), it searches all paths associated with the shortcut. If the target file is located on an NTFS partition, the system then uses the target's file ID to find a path. If the resulting path is not correct, it conducts a comprehensive search of the target drive in an attempt to find the file."

This means that when a shortcut references a file that isn't there (an offline network resource or a missing file, for example, \\mycomputer\photos), Windows XP will hang for a long time when you simply open the folder that contains the shortcut. Windows XP hangs while it tries to find the resource, even though you didn't double-click the shortcut. It's especially frustrating while going through your old backups of folders on another computer, or a freshly reinstalled computer. Or if the network resource is offline.

Here's how to fix it!

Using Group Policy

Click Start, click Run, then type gpedit.msc. Press ENTER
Under User Configuration expand Administrative Templates, and then expand Start Menu and Taskbar.
Double-click Do not use the search-based method when resolving shell shortcuts, and then click Enable.
Double-click Do not use the tracking-based method when resolving shell shortcuts, and then click Enable.
Expand User Configuration, expand Administrative Templates, expand Windows Components, expand Windows Explorer, double-click Do not track Shell shortcuts while roaming, and then click Enable.

This will shorten the two-minute-long hang to about 3 seconds.

There's an alternate solution that's fairly easy and works on Windows XP Home where you don't have Group Policy (and I don't know the registry settings for the above); instead of creating a shortcut to the resource, create a shortcut to Windows Explorer, with a switch to open the resource!

For example:

1. Right-click the Desktop.

2. Point to New, and then click Shortcut.

3. Type the following, and then click Next (don't forget to type the comma, and specify the URL for your resource):

%SYSTEMROOT%\explorer.exe /e, \\mycomputer\photos

4. Type a name for the shortcut, and then click Finish.

5. Copy or move the shortcut to your favorites folder or wherever!

If you want to create additional "shortcuts", simply copy the one you made, right-click the copy, click Propertiesand then modify the URL.

While you are at it, here are some really useful shortcuts that will work on any computer:

%SYSTEMROOT%\explorer.exe /e, "%userprofile%\application data
%SYSTEMROOT%\explorer.exe /e, "%userprofile%\application data\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Start
%SYSTEMROOT%\explorer.exe /e, "%userprofile%\application data\Microsoft\Signatures
%SYSTEMROOT%\explorer.exe /e, "%userprofile%\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files"
%SYSTEMROOT%\explorer.exe /e, %userprofile%\desktop

http://forums.pcpitstop.com/lofivers...p/t121312.html