Solution to the grey folder pane in explorer Win2K and XP
for the windows 2k and xp users with the problem of grey box folder in explorer:
1. open registry editor (start -> run -> in the box type regedit and press enter)
2. look for HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT and press + or click on it to expand
3. look for CLSID and then press + or click on it to expand
4. look for EFA24E64-B078-11d0-89E4-00C04FC9E26E and select it and delete all threads (could be more than one)
5. close registry editor
6. open notepad and copy and paste in it the text below
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{EFA24E64-B078-11d0-89E4-00C04FC9E26E}]
@="Explorer Band"
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{EFA24E64-B078-11d0-89E4-00C04FC9E26E}\Implemented Categories]
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{EFA24E64-B078-11d0-89E4-00C04FC9E26E}\Implemented Categories\{00021493-0000-0000-C000-000000000046}]
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{EFA24E64-B078-11d0-89E4-00C04FC9E26E}\InProcServer32]
@=hex(2):25,00,53,00,79,00,73,00,74,00,65,00,6d,00,52,00,6f,00,6f,00,74,00,25,\
00,5c,00,53,00,79,00,73,00,74,00,65,00,6d,00,33,00,32,00,5c,00,73,00,68,00,\
64,00,6f,00,63,00,76,00,77,00,2e,00,64,00,6c,00,6c,00,00,00
"ThreadingModel"="Apartment"
7. click on File -> Save as and type as a name win2k.reg be careful to change Save as type from Text Documents (*.txt) to All Files
8. click on Save
9. from explorer double click on creted file win2k.reg and agree to include this to registry
10. restart Windows
That should be it!
The reason for this error is possible corrupted registry or usage of some registry cleaner software.
Anyway this should solve problems.
In case of any other issues feel free to contact me at (e-mail address removed)