Win explorer crashes when I navigate to folder with MKVs?!?

[twa000]

OK, after a friend installed `Makemkv and complained that I had "tainted" his Windows 7 system I "think" I have a resolution NOT fix to this problem, which allows everything to stay installed

This is Windows 7 specific, it may work for Vista or XP, I have no system to test see also later.
Click Start button, enter gpedit.msc
Under User configuration - open up Administrative templates (click), open up Windows components (click)
Click on Windows Explorer - you should have a long list of do-ables most of which are not configured
Click on extended tab (down bottom of pane) will tell you what each is about
Double click brings up the options.

So double click on and enable: (1) turn off caching of thumbnails, (2) turn off display of thumbnails and only display icons, and for good luck (3) the same thing on network folders

I have seen an XP/Vista fix that might work by turning off media preview (shmedia.dll)- either google or post me if you need it.

As usual - works for me, may not for you!
But also fixes my idealistic friends problem

[NomadCF]

Or you could just turn off thumbnails for MKV files, depending on what codec your using.

[twa000]

Or you could just turn off thumbnails for MKV files, depending on what codec your using.

and if it worked for me I wouldn't have gone to this amount of pain
- and it is not only mkv's, there are a quite a few similar files that cause this problem

At least now regardless I still have all these codec's installed - and regardless of some of the crap code I don't end up with Windows Explorer blowing up - to be honest I don't need to see these thumbnails in the first place.

[NomadCF]

Or you could just turn off thumbnails for MKV files, depending on what codec your using.

and if it worked for me I wouldn't have gone to this amount of pain
- and it is not only mkv's, there are a quite a few similar files that cause this problem

But your method also disabled thumbnails for everything. When you only need to disable video thumbnails, so the codec in question cant be called to try and generate a thumbnail (then blow up) causing this issue.

I'm not disagreeing that your works and is simple, but it's just over kill for most people. Setting your video files to only show a plain icon (aka not generate a thumbnail) in stead of a thumbnail resolves the issue, and can be done either with the in settings of any good codec (as the codec is the one to tells windows it needs to and how to generate a thumbnail) OR though a simple registry change.

[twa000]

Or you could just turn off thumbnails for MKV files, depending on what codec your using.

and if it worked for me I wouldn't have gone to this amount of pain
- and it is not only mkv's, there are a quite a few similar files that cause this problem

But your method also disabled thumbnails for everything. When you only need to disable video thumbnails, so the codec in question cant be called to try and generate a thumbnail (then blow up) causing this issue.

I'm not disagreeing that your works and is simple, but it's just over kill for most people. Setting your video files to only show a plain icon (aka not generate a thumbnail) in stead of a thumbnail resolves the issue, and can be done either with the in settings of any good codec (as the codec is the one to tells windows it needs to and how to generate a thumbnail) OR though a simple registry change.

As far as I can see I have tried the normal - Haali is OFF, DivX (probably the culprit) doesn't let you do anything and ffdshow doesn't seem to show any connections to thumbnails in Explorer.
So if you have any other ideas feel free to let me know.

[twa000]

Ok having been through the registry this is the Haali splitter so will play around a bit more to see if I can kill only MKV - as said changing Haali configs does nothing

[twa000]

So now have 2 registry reg files 1 for turning off thumbnails, another for turning on.
Just have to reboot.

Allows me to mess with videos and then go back to normal.

If I get really fed up I will rip out all the mkv extension entries in the registry - my "safe" PC's which also can run makemkv and have no problems with mkv files do not have these entries but also do not have Divx and Haali on them.

[NomadCF]

So now have 2 registry reg files 1 for turning off thumbnails, another for turning on.
Just have to reboot.

Allows me to mess with videos and then go back to normal.

If I get really fed up I will rip out all the mkv extension entries in the registry - my "safe" PC's which also can run makemkv and have no problems with mkv files do not have these entries but also do not have Divx and Haali on them.

No need to reboot, at most killing *all* explorer process might be required. But I've never had to even go that far. I just simply close all open explorer windows, apply my reg file then go back to that directory. But for this to work you'll need to make sure your PC is setup to start each explorer "window" as it's own process/thread.

PS. Yes killing all explorer processes will also kill the shell explorer, but it's simply to restart. IF it doesn't auto restart on it's own. Heres some explorer restart instructions, for if you need to kill and restart the shell explorer process.

Code: Select all

ctrl+alt+del => start task manager => click "File" => Click "Run" => Type "explorer" => Click "OK"

[twa000]

So now have 2 registry reg files 1 for turning off thumbnails, another for turning on.
Just have to reboot.

Allows me to mess with videos and then go back to normal.

If I get really fed up I will rip out all the mkv extension entries in the registry - my "safe" PC's which also can run makemkv and have no problems with mkv files do not have these entries but also do not have Divx and Haali on them.

No need to reboot, at most killing *all* explorer process might be required. But I've never had to even go that far. I just simply close all open explorer windows, apply my reg file then go back to that directory. But for this to work you'll need to make sure your PC is setup to start each explorer "window" as it's own process/thread.

PS. Yes killing all explorer processes will also kill the shell explorer, but it's simply to restart. IF it doesn't auto restart on it's own. Heres some explorer restart instructions, for if you need to kill and restart the shell explorer process.

Code: Select all

Yep, you are right didn't think of killing through task mgr
ctrl+alt+del => start task manager => click "File" => Click "Run" => Type "explorer" => Click "OK"

[Inertius]

Do the mkv's contain blu-ray subtitles? I was getting crashes because of that.

[twa000]

Do the mkv's contain blu-ray subtitles? I was getting crashes because of that.

Some had but many had not!

[twa000]

Ok having been through the registry this is the Haali splitter so will play around a bit more to see if I can kill only MKV - as said changing Haali configs does nothing

well for all my registry changes etc I was still having problems, so eventually dug out the Win 7 reliability reports for Windows Explorer and ----- when it caught the offending module it was DivX(PropertyHandler.dll).

So I have sent them a ticket and we will see what they say, however by renaming both this module and (surprisingly ) DivXThumbnailProvider.dll, I seem to be absolutely fine with all my thumbnails for other extensions. But not that surprising is that DivX media player will not play - perhaps I will mess around a bit more!

[SamuriHL]

Does the divx converter still work with those dll's disabled? That's what I bought divx for and had to uninstall it due to this problem. I tried it on 3 different machines and could NEVER get it to stop crashing until I uninstalled divx.

[twa000]

Does the divx converter still work with those dll's disabled? That's what I bought divx for and had to uninstall it due to this problem. I tried it on 3 different machines and could NEVER get it to stop crashing until I uninstalled divx.

Will play around tomorrow as these modules are in the registry so if I can work out how to stop it thumbnailing then I can leave in the system - OR- DivX come back to me - all they have to do is give an option to turn off thumbnails for MKV etc

[SamuriHL]

Good luck with the Divx correspondence. AFAIK this has been an issue for MANY versions of Divx. When I was searching for a resolution it seemed this problem went back many years. Ultimately I uninstalled it but would love to be able to use the converter for some other projects I do.