Windows Explorer Conflict

[ZZZERO]

A friend installed the autogknot program 0.5 and is having a strange problem. When she tried to access her E: hard disk in Windows Explorer she gets this error:

error signature AppName: explorer.exe AppVer: 6.0.2800.1221 ModName: xvid.dll ModVer: 0.0.0.0 Offset: 00049d67

If she uninstalls autogknot the problem goes away. I'm posting here since it seems an xvid issue rather than autoGknot.

She uses Windows XP Home.
CPU is Intel Celeron 1300
Auto Gknot installs XVID 24062003 codec

This isn't related to encoding/decoding. She can encode movies fine with the autogknot program and view movies without problem. She can also use the files on the E: drive. She just can't view the files in explorer. Her other two other internal drives and one external drive work fine in explorer. Drive E: is a Maxtor 200GB drive.

[Manao]

She just can't view the files in explorerThat's not a loss (imho).Her other two other internal drives and one external drive work fine in explorerDo you mean by that that she can preview movies in Explorer if they are on a drive different from drive E: ?

Does she have the problem with all video files ? ( ogm, kmv, avi ) With all kind of codec ? ( DivX3,4,5, Xvid ) Only with a specific file ( to test that, don't put all your file in the same folder ). If it's a specific file, what happens if it is moved to another drive ? Can't she install FFDshow ? Does she then have the same issue ?

[ZZZERO]

I think you've misunderstood the problem. In windows explorer if she clicks on the E: drive she gets the error mentioned, which refers to xvid.dll. There's no decoding, playback, encoding involved here.

[Neo Neko]

Explorer in it's ever increasing attempt to hog more CPU time indeed decodes the files! That is partially how it gets information on the files. If this feature were to function correctly it would only happen when you brought up a files propperty window. But Microsoft in their infinate wisdom made explorer do this simply when scanning a directory or clicking on a file name. Early Dev-api4 builds would actually cause explorer to crash for me if I only selected a file. Because the moment the file is selected Explorer tries to decode it and get info about it.

[cweb]

Time to replace that WinXP explorer with a replacement,if you ask me.

Anyone know of a good open source explorer replacement (perhaps which runs under wine with Linux too)?

[dimzon]

Originally posted by cweb
Time to replace that WinXP explorer with a replacement,if you ask me.

Wrong. Time to replace XviD decoder or tweak it settings :)

I have got simular problems with DivX 5 files some time ago. After full DShow playback chain examination (using GSpot on problem files) I found that "Overlay Extended Mode" in divx5.1 dshow decoder settings causes WinXP explorer to crush. Uncheking this option solve my problem

sorry for my poor english :(

[Neo Neko]

Well fixing the decoders is a good start. But fixing or replacing explorer is not a bad idea either. It does not bother me much anyway. 3 out of my 4 active systems are linux systems and don't have these problems. Actually if someone ported konqueror to windows that would resolve alot of issues.

[citronym]

I fixed this problem by disabling windows desire to "decode" the file when reading it. I think it is actually trying to determine width, height, etc. This reg tweak makes windows stop scanning the avi files.

1. Open up regedit
2. Goto HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\SystemFileAssociations\.avi\shellex\PropertyHandler
3. Delete the "Default" value which should be "{87D62D94-71B3-4b9a-9489-5FE6850DC73E}"


hope this helps

[AJ2]

Do you know if this works with Windows 2000 also? If not, do you know of a way? The only thing I can do now is disable the 'Common Tasks' bar. That's kind of inconvenient for picture previewing, though. :\

[eeatha]

Originally posted by citronym
I fixed this problem by disabling windows desire to "decode" the file when reading it. I think it is actually trying to determine width, height, etc. This reg tweak makes windows stop scanning the avi files.

1. Open up regedit
2. Goto HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\SystemFileAssociations\.avi\shellex\PropertyHandler
3. Delete the "Default" value which should be "{87D62D94-71B3-4b9a-9489-5FE6850DC73E}"


hope this helps

This tip (which will probably fix it) will remove some functionality from windows explorer though, more specifically if your friend ties to use the properties menu of the file to identify the codec, or check it's resolution then she won't be able to do it with this key removed from the registry.

Make sure you export the key before deleting it so that you can restore it if you want to.

Now I am guessing that her machine is using XviD.dll to decode the video file, could you tell us what version it is and any other info about it? (Cause it all works in my machine and it could be an XviD error related to that dll version).

Also what version of windows, and what service pack is she using could be relevant if the fault is at microsoft's end. (Perhaps they released a patch for it).

[geoffwa]

Disabling the .avi property handler is perfectly safe and is the best halfway option (bar disabling folder tasks).

The Windows AVI handler tends to fail or outright crash when handling funny AVI files and can consume all of your CPU while doing so. It also tends to leave file locks on, meaning you can't delete .avi files.

[cweb]

Originally posted by dimzon
Wrong. Time to replace XviD decoder or tweak it settings :)

Why should XP explorer behave in this way? It's a waste of the processor's time, if you ask me. It should be something you can toggle on and off.

So unless you can toggle it off, no amount of playing with XviD settings will help. You need to play with Explorer's settings, or use an Explorer replacement.

Here's one replacement:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/gxexplorer/ (in beta)

and here's a more mature one:
http://ishell.sourceforge.net/news.php

Why not try ishell? It looks interesting...