For anyone having problems managing AVI files in XP

[BluDChyLD]

I had this problem where Windows XP wouldn't let me rename or move any AVI/DivX files, it would always say the file is in use. It turns out it's bug in explorer, get rid of it with this :)

"The obnoxious bug in XP that causes Explorer to read the entire contents of broken AVI files before allowing any access to them is caused by bad behavior of shmedia.dll. This problem manifests itself by causing Explorer to read the entire contents of an AVI file, regarless of its size or location any time the mouse pointer is hovered over it, or an attempt is made to access it in windows explorer. This causes 'permission denied' errors when trying to simply move, copy or delete these files as they cannot be changed while Explorer has an open handle on them. This also causes a DoS situation where large AVI's are stored on remote shares and Explorer keeps reading the files from beginning to end each time they are accessed. To correct this misbehavior in Windows XP, remove the following registry key. HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\CLSID\{87D62D9
4-71B3-4b9a-9489-5FE6850DC73E}\InProcServer32 This will prevent Explorer from loading shmedia.dll in response to file property queries on these files. This will not effect your ability to play files, get file attributes, or even view thumbnails. "

BluDChyLD

[dragoman]

works great!

Thanks,

dragoman

P.S. For anyone who doesn't know where to find the key, go to start menu - Run - type "regedit" and just go like normal explorer from there

dragoman

[phrentec]

i remember doom9 posting this in the news somewhere. i have been trying to find it but failed. so i did a search and came to this post which the closest match. well anyway.

i couldnt find that registry entry after spending several minutes. so i was wondering is it different for windows 2000 server? or am i just doing something wrong. Does anyone remember the date doom9 posted that. thanks.

[manono]

Thanks BluDChyLD-

And thanks to you phrentec for finding the old post. But unfortunately, I don't know the answer to your question.

I'd had a broken video sitting on the hard drive for a couple of months that I'd been unable to Delete. Now it's finally gone.

[Acaila]

I'm on Win2k as well, but I don't have that key either.

But you can just start your computer in DOS mode and delete the corrupt file from there. Since the problem lies with Explorer, deleting something from DOS should work just fine.

[N_F]

Acaila & phrentec: The problem where you sometimes can't delete or modify an avi-file in any way does only exist on XP, not on 2000. Or have you experienced otherwise?

[Acaila]

As I understood it phrentec was having that problem, but I've never had it.
XP does indeed seem to have more quirks than 2000 :)

[BluDChyLD]

I didn't think this old post would get dug up :) Glad it helped!

[phrentec]

yes, the problem i get with the handling of avi's in 2k server is very similar, or the same as, to the one in XP. before 2k server i had xp installed and was able to find the key now with this OS i cant. Also the problem only happens in explorer, like when it trys to read large corrupt avi files, or files that are missing a header. but it doesnt happen in any other file browsing utility like ontracks powerdesk or 2xExplorer. http://netez.com/2xExplorer/ so within those browsers you can delete whatever incomplete avi you want without your hard drive screaming at you.
I'm still looking for that key so if anyone knows please help out. it will be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

also a bit off topic but i noticed that google doesnt seem to archive any portions of this forum or forum.doom9.net, forum.doom9.org at all. that would suck because then this forum wouldnt be open to the world for searching and all the great posts that we have, on some spent hours on, written will be limited to the amount they are noticed. or could be, correct me if i'm wrong, that our archie, sir, has added a robot.txt a means of excluding any search bots from archiving this forum.

and on another note. i just found out of this site that has a tool similar to divfix, oh that program that we love to use so much with dc++, but its different in the way that instead of copying the avi somewhere else and then rebuilding the index, you can just preview the avi in real time straight from it while its being downloaded.

Thanks again.

[Booji Boy]

Great!

Came across this thread while looking for something else, but it turned out that I had this problem recently.

I knew it had something to do with XP trying to load the avi file for some useless reasons, like presenting me a tooltip with info about that avi.

It's a shame that they didn't fixed that bogus service within the (almost) two years, or so.

[Sharktooth]

Originally posted by phrentec
yes, the problem i get with the handling of avi's in 2k server is very similar, or the same as, to the one in XP. before 2k server i had xp installed and was able to find the key now with this OS i cant. Also the problem only happens in explorer, like when it trys to read large corrupt avi files, or files that are missing a header. but it doesnt happen in any other file browsing utility like ontracks powerdesk or 2xExplorer. http://netez.com/2xExplorer/ so within those browsers you can delete whatever incomplete avi you want without your hard drive screaming at you.
I'm still looking for that key so if anyone knows please help out. it will be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Look for "AVI file handler" in the registry. You should be able to find it. At least i hope...

[arman68]

Since this thread has been dug up, I might as well contribute with a better way to do it: just unregister the buggy shmedia.dll with the following command

regsvr32 /u C:\windows\system32\shmedia.dll

(assuming WinXP is installed in C:\windows)

[DigitAl56K]

WOW - old thread!

The BigFix pack does the registry patch automatically:
http://forums.divx.com/viewtopic.php?topic=54711&forum=1

[niamh]

i still havent fixed that problem in 2k pro...it will let you delete files, but it's hard to move them , and explorer crashes on me regularly still. no shmedia dll, no registry key, no avi file handler in registry . i am stumped :)and have been for a long time now

[e268]

Since this thread has been dug up, I might as well contribute with a better way to do it: just unregister the buggy shmedia.dll with the following command

regsvr32 /u C:\windows\system32\shmedia.dll

(assuming WinXP is installed in C:\windows)

This works. Thanks. Just want to keep this thread alive in case someone like me runs into this problem.