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explorer crashes when *.wmv files are selected

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MurphGuitar

New Member
Joined
Jun 23, 2004
Location
Cincinnati, OH, USA
I've been Googling looking for solutions to this issue, and all I can find are things that seem somewhat closely related, such as people are right-clicking on files and explorer crashes. I've read that a number of programs do something when you right-click on a file because they're going to appear in the right-click menu. But my problem is, I can't even left-click to select a *.wmv file. A couple *.wmv files I didn't care if I lost, I was able to delete them by having my fingers over the delete and enter buttons, and deleting them in the split second before explorer crashes, but it's happening to all my *.wmv files and some of them I don't want to lose.

I have two 200 GB hard drives which are loaded with stuff, and if I was to format I'd have to be burning DVDs for weeks. So I was hoping for suggestions on things to try short of reformatting. Could anyone suggest anything to fix this? I don't have any experience deleting things from the registry, or using the command prompt, so if you have any suggestions involving doing those things please give thorough and specific instructions. Any help would be much appreciated, TIA.
 
To unregister the ".wmv" you could open My computer then selct Tools/Folder Options. Pick the tab near the top called 'File Types'. Scroll down to '.wmv' and delete it. You will recieve a confirmation message. You could then 'reregister' them by attempting to open them and 're-select' the program to open. I'm not sure if this will stop your Explorer from crashing but it will unregister the file type.

Z
 
uhh.. it's a problem with the indexing service. If you are using XP then you'll run into problems with large video files sometimes, especially if something screws around with the service like many spyware and viruses like to do. There are work around listed for it on the net but that doesn't always solve the problem 100% of the time. I had this problem once and doing the work arounds stopped the crashing but my system would still hang for a few minutes everytime I right clicked on a video file.

Best solution. reinstall windows to fix the indexing service because it corrupted or damaged in some way.
 
I can't believe I didn't give any specs when I posted, sorry. I'm running Windows XP home SP2. I have nearly all audio and video files including *.wmv associated with Windows Media Player 10. I should clarify that my problem is *not* the right-clicking problem that some other people are having (although they may be related, I have no idea). My crashes happen after left-clicking to select a *.wmv file.

I don't understand this "registering" thing. Is that about file type associations or digital rights management or what? Do you think the problem could be the way Windows Media Player deals with *.wmv files and some other player would be okay? Yeah, my problem is that I can't even open the files in another player because just selecting them will crash explorer. So if what you were saying is a way to change the file type association maybe that would be a good workaround, thanks. I would much prefer to not reformat because I have so much stuff to backup, so if I could just find a way to play *.wmv files without explorer crashing that'd be great.
 
Registering deals with the file types. As in what file type is opened by what program. If you have somehow messed up the file associations what I said may help. It's kind of a shot in the dark but it certainly wont hurt. You may have a virus or some spyware messing around as well. Might I suggest a good scan with Ad-Aware, Spybot, or the like.

Z
 
Try running Event Viewer (in order to access the error logs, and check for any critical errors)...Start | Run | Type eventvwr.msc and click OK | Highlight "Application" and "System" independently in the LH pane | Right click any error message(s) (critical errors are in Red), and select "Properties" | Write down a couple of the latest critical error messages related to WMP exactly as they appear (under the "Description" field), and post them in this thread.

Also, open the System Information tool by typing msinfo32 in the Run box | Expand "Components" | Highlight "Problem Devices", and look for any problems that might be listed there.
 
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