Windows Explorer crashing when working with video files

cybertoad

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Dec 29, 2011
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I'm having an issue when trying to work with video files (*.avi) in Windows Explorer. If I try to click on the files, Windows Explorer crashes. I have to use the Task Manager to end the program. This does not happen if I work with the files through my media player (VLC). I am running Windows XP Pro SP3. I use Windows Update to keep all patches and bug fixxes up to date. The following information is found in the Event Viewer:

Faulting application explorer.exe, version 6.0.2900.5512, faulting module ntdll.dll, version 5.1.2600.6055, fault address 0x00010f1e.

Faulting application drwtsn32.exe, version 5.1.2600.0, faulting module dbghelp.dll, version 5.1.2600.5512, fault address 0x0001295d.

Hanging application explorer.exe, version 6.0.2900.5512, hang module hungapp, version 0.0.0.0, hang address 0x00000000.

The shell stopped unexpectedly and Explorer.exe was restarted.


Any thoughts or ideas on how to fix this would be appreciated.
 

cybertoad

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I just noticed that the second error in Event Viewer is for Dr. Watson. I'll have to disable that.

And in answer to your other question:

Audio Video Interleaved (also Audio Video Interleave), known by its initials AVI, is a multimedia container format introduced by Microsoft in November 1992 as part of its Video for Windows technology. AVI files can contain both audio and video data in a file container that allows synchronous audio-with-video playback.

*.avi is not associated with VLC. It is a standard video file extension.
 

cybertoad

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I checked to see which program *.avi is associated with and it was the VLC media player. I switched it to Windows media player, but I am still having the same problem with Windows Explorer crashing.
 

cybertoad

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I was able to locate a fix for this problem:

If you have a large movie clip and it either is corrupt (ie. no index from a partial download) or it uses an unsupported codec, then Explorer tries to load the whole file. This can slow your computer a lot and prevent deleting/renaming/moving/etc the file until it’s finished.

Simply do the following steps:
1) Open a command window (Start->Run, type in 'cmd' hit enter)
2) To remove image preview, type and hit enter
regsvr32 /u shimgvw.dll
3) To readd image preview, type and hit enter
regsvr32 shimgvw.dll
4) To remove media preview, type and hit enter
regsvr32 /u shmedia.dll
5) To readd media preview, type and hit enter
regsvr32 shmedia.dll

This solved my problem