WB 5 Causing Explorer to Crash

Published on November 29, 2005 By DragonKid In WindowBlinds

When I updated to WB 5 and restarted my computer, Explorer.exe kept crashing every 2 minutes or when I try to do something that requires it, like a shutdown. I had no choice to but to do a System Restore and rollback to the beta. Would anybody happen to know what is going on? I'll continue using the beta until this is fixed, because that isn't causing me any problems at all.

~DragonKid

Comments (Page 2)

Neil Banfield

on Dec 13, 2005

If you have the same problem with classic applied, then it is likely its not WB causing the problem.

As far as I know all explorer crashes in ntdll.dll have been tracked down to Icon Packager, not WindowBlinds. Find the file iprepair.dll and rename it to something else & then see if crashing continues after a reboot.

Chef Garry

on Dec 13, 2005

I can do that Neil but the problem doesn't occur when 4.6 is running. It appears that there is a conflict then between IP and 5.0 - at least that would be my guess.

Chef Garry

on Dec 13, 2005

I updated to WB 5 again and immediately explorer crashed. After changing the name of iprepair.dll, it no longer has trouble. As there wasn't a problem using WB 4.6, the problem is clearly between IP and WB 5.0.

I used the simple file sharing procedure identified by zaphman in the multi-user issue thread and WB 5 works for all users now.

BAMA1

on Dec 14, 2005

I have the same problem. And when I unload Window Blinds Explorer works fine. Reload Window Blinds...and crash...

bagginz

on Dec 14, 2005

What version of IconPackager is being used for those having the problem?

K R

on Dec 14, 2005

Question for all who have this problem, like me.

Do you use McAfee Anti-Virus software?

I think I am on to something... (at least on my system)

Chef Garry

on Dec 14, 2005

Bagginz - latest release

KR - Yeah I use McAfee. It'll be interesting to see if others of us with this problem are using MacAfee as well.

NightTrainthedark

on Dec 14, 2005

I am having a prob with explorer crashing but I do not have Macafee. I have no AV software at the moment.

Chef Garry

on Dec 14, 2005

Well so much for that theory. Have you tried renaming iprepair.dll? It fixed things for me.

Personally, I'd be a bit nervous running without AV.

bagginz

on Dec 15, 2005

If you have IconPackager installed can you please try updating to the latest version 3.10.100. Please let me know if that fixes the problem.

DigitalDanes

on Dec 15, 2005

Yeah I use McAfee. It'll be interesting to see if others of us with this problem are using MacAfee as well.

I don't have the problem and I have the full McAfee suite of proggies here. In fact, I haven't had but one problem with the new SD products (way back in the first beta of WB5), and I for one am thankful that my computer has taken such a beating this long and still runs like a Timex.
DD

Posted via WinCustomize Browser/Stardock Central

K R

on Dec 19, 2005

After removal of McAfee AV, WB seems to be running like a champ. No Explorer crashes for a couple of days.

What could be the issue?

Rahn

on Dec 31, 2005

Dear All, I posted this at another forum but this thread seems to be the place

"... I've had 2 huge WINXP SP2 crashes within the last 6 months where on boot the error is that Explorer.exe has encountered a problem and needs to close. In each case there were 72 faulting modules and they were every important system DLL Windows needs to run. My conclusion is that WB5 ain't real happy with something as this never occured before WB5 or when using WB4. As I'm tired of reinstalling Windows I'm not game to try WB5 again. I may give WB4 a go given the different implementation of how it applies skins.
I am really disappointed as I just hate the default desktop."

Developer bagginz - I had the latest versions of both IP and WB5 at the last crash on Wednesday 28 December.
Neil, like Garry I now suspect that the problem was IP and yes one of the 72 faulting modules was Ntdll.dll.
Do I understand that Neils advice is to rename iprepair.dll to something like iprepair.old and then all will be well?
More disturbingly I find now in many threads that some Antivirus products are suspected of interferring with however it is that WB5 loads. I wonder if the ODBC method was more stable than the current implementation?
I hate reinstalling Windows but I think I hate the dafult desktop and icons even more so I'll give your advice a try if you could confirm the steps that I should take. Thank you all very much

Rahn

on Jan 01, 2006

Dear Neil in my last post I neglected to ask as to how one removes SDMCP as per your suggestion. I can't find a discrete single entry in Startup but I have found 2 HKLM AND 1 HKCU entry in the Registry. The last is for MCPStarupEnabled and has a Dword value which I guess could be changed. Sorry for the further post but the temperature hit 45C (113 Farenheit) in Oz today and I was more thought disordered than usual.

Thank you

Since first posting this I have found that if one opens Stardock Central and goes Tools/Settings/General and unchecks "Enable MCP Notification Area Support" the result is that SDMCP does not load as suggested by Neil and Yraq. Wish I'd been told that little gem for those of use struggling to get things working

Have installed ATI 5.9 drivers as Corky O has found them best for Radeon X700 Pro card which we both have and the later 5.1x drivers may have issues. I have installed Smart Exception as per Neils suggestion. I'll now install Icon Packager first and then rename iprepair.dll as also suggested. After that it's WB5 time and hope for the best.
Should have noted earlier system is Pentium 4 at 3.2GHz with 1.00GB RAM.
Last point that needs repeating, particularly as this Explorer.exe error is noted in a number of other threads, is that whilst the first faulting module is shown as NTdll.dll if one looks at the further crash details there are 70+ other modules (mostly Dll's) noted as being faulting modules as well. I concur with some others that have found the only solution after the crash has been a complete reinstall of Windows from scratch - it's that pervasive. I also note that the crash is inexplicable in that it just happens out of the blue on previously happy systems. Oh well here goes nothing

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