I have a problem with Vista - Windows Explorer keeps crashing

[michael]

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.

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.

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.

[Gibbsy11]

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.

[UnluckyMike]

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.

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.

I am having exactly the same problem. I am using an external database that I
am accessing through the internet - it has crashed 4 times in the last 30
minutes - I have to reboot and start all over again. My work colleague got
fed up with this and re-installed XP. I know nothing about computers so I
guess its back to Circuit City! I can add this failure to the error I found
in excel a few weeks ago that Microsoft say they are sorting with a patch -
no too good eh!

[Ching]

Windows Explorer crashing is almost always problematic third party shell extensions, at least in my experience. ZipGenius could most certainly be the culprit here. I have had issue like this in the past, so I don't install or allow programs to add shell extensions if I'm not familiar with them. Known ones like WinZip are typically harmless. If someone can export the registry branch containing the ZipGenius shell extension key, I'd be glad to take a look. I'd need the whole branch, not just the key.

I just purchased a brand new Lenovo I-Pad about two weeks ago with Vista
Home Premium pre-installed. It took me less than an hour after I first
fired up my new machine for the "Windows Explorer is not responding"
[hungapp] crashes to start. Since then, this hungapp message, followed
by the ". . . checking for problems" and then "no (known) solutions
found" messages have been a consistent & constant source of computing
joy for me.

From the various posts I've read here on the Vista Heads site and some
other sites, including ZDNet & PC World, it sounds like Vista Home
Premium may have some inherently faulty registry keys [????] and is
particularly susceptible to a whole host of bugs, including "registry
fix" malware invasions. Even those who have "stripped down" their OSs
to the bare bones of Vista Home Prem still seem to be reporting this "W.
E. . . not responding" problem.

fwiw - for the time being anyway - I have run CA Internet Security
Suite's virus and spyware scans on my system and, after I quarantined
three problems caught with the latter scan, my system seems to be
running a bit more smoothly. I had earlier downloaded and run RegCure
by ParetoLogic, but that did not fix the ". . . not responding" crashes.

Short of going back to XP or ditching my current laptop for a MacBook,
I want to know if there are some general solutions, e.g., a list of
known registry bugs in Home Premium, out there that newbies like me can
refer to in case my recent CA spyware scan fixes haven't adequately
resolved my hungapp issues.

Thanks and good luck to everyone else out there who has been dealing
with this "Windows Explorer is not responding" problem with their Vista
Home Premium OSs.

As I have three Vista installs here at home that are over a year old that
have never had an instance of WE "not responding", I can safely say that
there is not an inherent problem with the registry settings that relate to
it. These include 2 custom builds of my own as well as a preinstalled HP
laptop, so it's nothing special I did other than practice safe hex.

The single biggest cause of this problem is malware (including both
spy/adware and viruses) that the user has allowed to be installed on the
system. The second is incompatible software, mainly those that include shell
enhancement features. Registry cleaners themselves are more frequently the
cause and not the solution and can often make matters worse.

As your installation is not that old, the easiest solution would be to
follow Lenovo's instructions for a factory recovery and start with a clean
slate.

Thanks for your reply. You may be right about the "Windows Explorer is
not responding" problem being caused by inadvertently installed spyware
and malware. I say this because it seems that my CA Security spyware
scan and fix a day or so ago has resolved this hungapp issue on my
machine. Still, it is concerning that so many Windows Vista Home
Premium users have reported this problem when initially starting their
newly purchased computers. Does this mean that new machines like mine
are being sold to consumers with spyware and malware pre-installed?

If you are still around it has been my experience that add ons and
toolbars almost all upset IE eventually. You would think Yahoo and
Google for example should be alright, but I have found they are not. I
suspect that this is a kind of merry go round, the toolbar is written
and works, Microsoft update IE which breaks the relationship, Yahoo or
whatever updates their software but breaks some other relationship and
so it goes on.

A lot of the stuff manufacturers put on there is designed for the
version of Vista that ships with the machine, but of course as soon as
you get it there will be updates, and quite likely there is some
guideline that hasn't been followed or has had to be changed for
security reasons between shipping and first use. Microsoft can't
possibly know where these missed guidelines are, and the OEMs can't
possibly predict where Microsoft will be forced to change something, so
best to avoid add ons unless you actually do need them. Many people
clean off OEM stuff right away.

[gorekill]

ok i'm having a major problem with W.E it crashes right after i start the comp up after bout 5 mins of it fixing and crashing it shuts the computer down.idk what else to do i dont want to redo the whole computer cause i cant get to the stuff i have on there to put on a cd.if there is any other options please let me kno