Windows XP: Window Explorer Crash

2 things you can try to fix explorer crashes on media files

Hi

bit late to the party - however. I was having the same problem with mpegs. Certain mpegs would crash explorer. To start with all I needed to do was open the folder that contained the files and windows explorer would crash.
You can get it to stop crashing as soon as you open the folder by turning off thumbnail cacheing.
To do this
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Open windows explorer on a freindly non-crashing folder and go to tools> folder options >view >check Do not cache thumbnails - [Apply to All Folders]
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however I was left with another lesser problem. Everytime I clicked on the file windows explorer would crash. I was not playing the file or anything just highlighting it with windows explorer. What solved this problem for me was unregistering media preview.


to do this
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Open the ‘Run’ dialog box from the start menu (Start->Run or press the Windows and r keys together):

To remove media preview, type and hit enter
regsvr32 /u shmedia.dll
To readd media preview, type and hit enter
regsvr32 shmedia.dll
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a bit of waffle

This method is more of a work around than a solution.
I knew it wasn't a virus as the computer hadn't been connected to the internet. My understanding is that when you click on a media file with explorer it tries to create a preview. If explorer can't create a preview for what ever reason it crashes ( instead of say moving on ). By unregistering this capability you prevent it from even trying and therefore prevent it from crashing. However unregistering media preview limits the amount of information exporer can give you about a media file - ie length, dimension, bit rate etc. This has no effect on windows media player capabilities (or lack of them) and explorer can still display overall file size. It is also a reversalble process.

PS a similar process works with image files
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To remove image preview, type and hit enter
regsvr32 /u shimgvw.dll
To readd image preview, type and hit enter
regsvr32 shimgvw.dll
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nb all original spelling mistakes are the copyright and intellectual property of yourpotential-ourcrashing YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!!