I have a problem with Vista - Windows Explorer keeps crashing

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I have a problem with Vista, Windows Explorer regularly keeps crashing.

Each time it says it will look for a 'fix' online, then doesn't even advise
me that one isn't available. Windows Explorer crashes every 15 minutes, i
doubt whether Microsoft will release a fix that quickly, maybe it should be
intelligent enough to 'not' check online when it is the 30th time it has
crashed in a matter of hours.

I have a freshly installed version of Vista, with only a few apps loaded
(seamonkey, real player, zip genius, office 2007). This problem however; has
been with me since my first use and at first I thought it was due to the OS
downloading updates / not having been rebooted.

When I am using Windows Explorer I get maybe 2 minutes of use before it
crashes.

There is absolutely no help in the Microsoft Vista Knowledge base.

I have a brand new high spec dell laptop, more than powerful enough to run
vista. I am running vista under 'classic mode' so do not make use of the
graphically intensive Aero functionality. Vista is the only OS on the laptop
(and I have re-installed Vista to try to fix, to no avail). From my point of
view there
is NO reason why Vista should be crashing so regularly, other than bugs in
the OS.

From what I can see a lot of people are experiencing this problem with
Windows Explorer (there are a whole heap of requests for help online).

The WOW hasn't started now. More like the WHY was this OS released without
due Quality Assurance. Where is the support functionality? Where is the help
from Windows Engineers? We are only in the first couple of weeks of release
and problems that were around during RC1 are still hanging around in the
consumer release?

Can somebody from Microsoft please treat this complaint as a matter of
urgency, here is a link to somebody else with the same problem.

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20070221012940AAuwBmi

It should be noted in the above example that by Microsoft not having a
solution to this problem, other people are suggesting downloading 'anti'
spyware (probably loaded with spyware) to a 'very' insecure newborn OS.

I STRONGLY RECOMMEND AVOIDING UPGRADING TO VISTA UNTIL MICROSOFT HAVE HAD
OPPORTUNITY TO PROPERLY TEST THIS OS (Unfortunately it looks like I am now an
unpaid tester for Microsoft, along with everybody else who has bought a new
computer recently)

I have to add that I have not seen any advantage of having Vista over Xp so
far.

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http://windowshelp.microsoft.com/co....public.windows.vista.performance_maintenance
 
If I had a "brand new high spec dell laptop" that was crashing every 15
minutes or less, I doubt I would be blaming the operating system.
 
The laptop is not crashing, the laptop works fine.

Vista in general, works fine.

The crashes only occur when Windows Explorer is open. And then the error is
localised to Windows Explorer. Just what do you suggest is causing the crash
from a hardware perspective?

If it was a hardware problem then Dell would have had complaints from others
who have the same model laptop running XP or Linux.

Please do not leave pointless messages.
 
There are lots and lots of similar reports, including mine. My taskbar
started flashing and became useless after about an hour or so of operation,
and usually upon coming back from the screen saver. I thought my Dell 610 may
be too slow, so I bought a Dell 620 with an upgraded graphics card. It still
happens. But, I've discovered that it does NOT happen when the laptop is
undocked. That lead me to think it was the flat screen, so I replaced that
also, and got the latest drivers. It still happens. So far I've not seen any
solution posted to this huge problem.
 
I do have the same problem. Another employee that works with me has Business
version of Vista and its more stable than my Ultimate version. I must of got
the Ultimate package - (included all the extra bugs). But i have not heard
one solution to a fix or any help to figuring out a time line of a fix.
Microsoft needs to step in and give a direct answer.


Cole
 
I too have recently bought a toshiba laptop with vista installed. My system
has crashed 3 times, rebooted in safe mode, had 390 error messages, some
critical, some warnings...but with no solutions available. I am quite
frustrated because this system was a big investment for me.
 
I've run Vista Ultimate with Office 2007 on Dell D620's and D820's. No
problems. On which Dell model are you running Vista? Have you tested RAM?
Chkdsk'd HD's?

I've been running Vista for about a year now... through Beta and RC's and
now RTM and I've never experienced what you describe. Many Vista issues can
be traced back to crappy device drivers. HW issues will impact the OS, too.
If part of explorer.exe is sitting on a bad sector on your hd, well...

Sorry, but I don't think your problem is OS related. My SWAG would be either
device driver, or hw issue.

Lang
 
I've run Vista Ultimate with Office 2007 on Dell D620's and D820's. No
problems. On which Dell model are you running Vista? Have you tested RAM?
Chkdsk'd HD's?

I've been running Vista for about a year now... through Beta and RC's and
now RTM and I've never experienced what you describe. Many Vista issues can
be traced back to crappy device drivers. HW issues will impact the OS, too.
If part of explorer.exe is sitting on a bad sector on your hd, well...

Sorry, but I don't think your problem is OS related. My SWAG would be either
device driver, or hw issue.

Lang


















- Show quoted text -
Click to expand...

I have the same problem, reinstalled Vista Business 3 times. No
hardware problmes, this machine ran XP for a year smooth as silk. This
is definitely a Vista bug, I also have unforgivable amounts of errors
and warnings within the event viewer.
I am not formatting again since it does no good. I am going to wait
for some more updates and hopefully MS is paying attention to
complaints.
 
UnluckyMike ha scritto:
Michael-
ZipGenius is the culprit to your Vista crash. I was experiencing the
same problem, took a little while to put it together. I noticed when
ever I moused over zip files, or when there was zip file in a folder I
was working in Vista would crash. Apparently ZipGenius 7 is in early
alpha stages and will address Vista issues. Until then, it's XP Pro for
me.
Click to expand...

ZipGenius 6.0.3.1130 seems to be working fine under Vista x32, while
in Vista x64 it has no shell context menu (public ad: I am searching
for experienced developers that could send to me some sample code for
64 bit shell extensions).
Yes, ZG 7 is in early alpha stage but it is growing very fast: (I
hope) it will address all Vista issues and it will be faster, easier
on resources and more modular than today's ZG 6.

Greetings.

Matteo Riso
http://www.zipgenius.it
 
Michael and others,

I'm having the same problem, I also figured out that explorer chrashes as
soon as it sees a zipgenius file (where it worked great on XP) so I tried
other zip programs after uninstalling zipgenius: winzip (o, yeah, thise
reminders to buy it, #@%!!) does not result in crashes but tells me that I do
NOT have the rights to open my zipfiles..??! As does 7zip.... I uninstalled
them all again, made sure I had the newest version of zipgenius and was back
where I started: crashes of explorer!
Working around explorer, just opening zipgenius and scrolling through there,
works for some zip files but for others the program just disapears, which is
about the same as an explorer crash (don't tell me that zipgenius uses
explorer to find other zip files - Max might come up with such a brilliant
remark - the fact is that it doesn't work and that is a pest!)
My PC is not a Dell but a Compaq SR 2089NL, fully Vista compatible (what
would that mean?), bought with XP and later updated when the promised Vista
arrived by mail, next Office 2007 and CorelDraw X3 are my main programs. So
as far I can see, I invested in lots of new stuff - yet I am ever so
dissatisfied with the results... I would only encourage people I dislike to
make the switch to Vista.... Know what I'm saying?
I sincerely hope that there is someone still listening and that this bug may
be fixable.
 
Fr@nk said:
Michael and others,

I'm having the same problem, I also figured out that explorer chrashes as
soon as it sees a zipgenius file (where it worked great on XP) so I tried
other zip programs after uninstalling zipgenius: winzip (o, yeah, thise
reminders to buy it, #@%!!) does not result in crashes but tells me that I do
NOT have the rights to open my zipfiles..??!
Click to expand...

I don't have this problem with WinZip. Maybe ZipGenius has done
something strange with the files. Did you need to run it as
Administrator - that might explain the different permissions? Maybe try
creating a few new zip files with WinZip and see if it can open them.
As does 7zip.... I uninstalled
them all again, made sure I had the newest version of zipgenius and was back
where I started: crashes of explorer!
Working around explorer, just opening zipgenius and scrolling through there,
works for some zip files but for others the program just disapears, which is
about the same as an explorer crash (don't tell me that zipgenius uses
explorer to find other zip files - Max might come up with such a brilliant
remark - the fact is that it doesn't work and that is a pest!)
My PC is not a Dell but a Compaq SR 2089NL, fully Vista compatible (what
would that mean?), bought with XP and later updated when the promised Vista
arrived by mail, next Office 2007 and CorelDraw X3 are my main programs. So
as far I can see, I invested in lots of new stuff - yet I am ever so
dissatisfied with the results... I would only encourage people I dislike to
make the switch to Vista.... Know what I'm saying?
Click to expand...

I'm using Vista with almost no problems. I certainly wouldn't advise
people to upgrade just for the sake of - there's no point unless there's
some features they really want / need. The only reason I have Vista is
that I needed a new computer anyway.
I sincerely hope that there is someone still listening and that this bug may
be fixable.
Click to expand...

Did you notice that the post you replied to is from one of the ZipGenius
developers, who would be precisely one of the people in a position to
fix the issue? He said "ZG 7 is in early alpha stage... (I hope) it will
address all Vista issues...". So you the problem will probably be fixed
in that version. The fact it is in "early alpha stage" means that it
probably currently contains a lot of bugs at the moment, which need
fixing before it can be released even as a beta version.

For info:

Alpha testing is testing of very early releases. A lot of possibly
severe problems are expected. This usually only involves developers /
testers.

Beta testing is when the software should be mostly usable (no frequent
crashes etc), but may still be buggy. This tends to be released to the
public (possibly only to those who specifically sign up for beta
versions) so that it can be tested in real-life use, and with a wider
variety of other software on the system, which is not always possible
with alpha testing.

There may then be several "release candidates" (RCs) for further testing
before the final release.
 
Thanks Mark,
I did indeed notice that the post I replied to is from one of the ZipGenius
developers, in hope so that they read it as well.
The version of zipgenius I use is not the alpha one but the ZipGenius
6.0.3.1130 version mentioned by Matteo Riso - and prooving him wrong.......
I constantly work in administrator mode, having got too tired of all hassle
as a low priveledged user, being the sole person to work on this desktop.
Maybe zipgenius did do something peculiar with the files which is not
compatible with winzip.
Maybe they should work on that as well.
Maybe Matteo could help me (us) out with that one....
Thanks
Fr@nk
 
Fr@nk ha scritto:
Thanks Mark,
I did indeed notice that the post I replied to is from one of the ZipGenius
developers, in hope so that they read it as well.
The version of zipgenius I use is not the alpha one but the ZipGenius
6.0.3.1130 version mentioned by Matteo Riso - and prooving him wrong.......
I constantly work in administrator mode, having got too tired of all hassle
as a low priveledged user, being the sole person to work on this desktop.
Maybe zipgenius did do something peculiar with the files which is not
compatible with winzip.
Maybe they should work on that as well.
Maybe Matteo could help me (us) out with that one....
Thanks
Fr@nk
Click to expand...

OK, I found the problem.
The zgtips.dll (a shell extension) is the cause of Windows Explorer
crashes.
I am releasing a modedd setup file for ZG 6.0.3.1130 which doesn't
register that shell extension if the target OS is Vista.
For everybody: click Start and type "CMD" in the Search field in the
Start Menu, then press SHIFT+ENTER to run a shell window in
administrator mode. Then type the following command:

regsvr32 "C:\Program Files\ZipGenius 6\zgtips.dll" /U

This command will unregister the shell extension and Windows Explorer
should not crash anymore.

I am already seeking for a solution that makes that shell extension
working.

Matteo Riso
http://www.zipgenius.it
 
Thank you Matteo,
I did what you said and indeed no chrash followed. BUT:
a new window tells me: faillure in compressed files.
Cannot open the file.
access to the compressed map c:\users\compaq_administrator\Documents\(etc.)
is refused.
That still isn't what we expect from it, is it?
Thank goodness for backups, I'm not worried yet, it's just time consuming...

Fr@nk
 
Michael,

I originally installed Zip Genius 6 Suite Edition and experienced the
crashing you described. I uninstalled it and ran CCleaner and then re-booted
and installed Zip Genius 6 Standard Edition. When Zip Genius was installing
and asked if I wanted all Zip files to be associated with Zip Genius, I chose
to NOT have this. I also used ShellExView and disabled several of the shell
extensions.

After I did that, I have had no problems with Exporer crashing.

Good luck,
edsager
 
To Matteo:
a new morning with new possibilities.....
Restarting my PC today (I didn't reboot after following your suggestion
yesterday) I found out that explorer still crashes over the zip files.....
And that some of the zip files can be opened if working through the
ZipGenius menu (instead of getting there through explorer). But at (at least)
one zipped folder, it crashes as well....
Fr@nk
 
Thank you Matteo,
I did what you said and indeed no chrash followed. BUT:
a new window tells me: faillure in compressed files.
Cannot open the file.
access to the compressed map c:\users\compaq_administrator\Documents\(etc.)
is refused.
That still isn't what we expect from it, is it?
Thank goodness for backups, I'm not worried yet, it's just time consuming...

Fr@nk
Click to expand...

The shell extension fails when you hover the mouse point on a damaged
zip file, so here is why you had to unregister that DLL.
If you have already unregistered the zgtips.dll, DELETE IT after a
reboot (no problem will occur, even if that file is no more
available).
I tested that shell extension with a good zip archive and Explorer
window crashed as always, so there is something in the code that needs
a review.
 
The shell extension fails when you hover the mouse point on a damaged
zip file, so here is why you had to unregister that DLL.
If you have already unregistered the zgtips.dll, DELETE IT after a
reboot (no problem will occur, even if that file is no more
available).
I tested that shell extension with a good zip archive and Explorer
window crashed as always, so there is something in the code that needs
a review.
Click to expand...

Ok, I found a bug that pops up only under Vista x32.
I am rebuilding the zgtips.dll from scratch and I will release a patch.
 
I have an issue with Windows Explorer.

After booting my PC, if i right click on the desktop i get a message
box saying, "Windows Explorer has stopped working". I looks for
solutions and then restarts. This however does not fix the problem, as
when i right click again it will just display the same messagers. after
a lengthy call to Microsoft they told me they could or would not help me
as i was running an OEM version of Vista and i did not have a registered
builders number with Microsoft. Does anyone know how to fix this
problem? Any help greatfuly received!!

Gibbsy11
Click to expand...


First, remove Vista.

Second, load Windows XP.
..
..
..
..
..
..
..
 
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