Error Fixing: The XP way

or- Why would you pay for that?

Published on July 30, 2004 By Amitty In Gadgets & Electronics

I have had a lot of people contact me lately about a interesting flaw in Windows XP. It seams that if you try to view large video files in Explorer, or click to get file information, the CPU spikes to 100% for....hours. It seems that just another fatle flaw has appeared in the OS that just can't seem to get fixed.

In the past, Microsoft has done what every other software company seems to do...drop crap on the market. Maybe crap is harsh, as the article I first read on this site ( and made me want to write for), it seems perfectly acceptable to release half assed versions of their software. Windows ME would probably be the best example, requiring so much work that MS scrapped it as soon as XP was released. Coincidently, when Windows 98 was about to be retired, quietly in the background so was ME. But, the public cried out and MS held off. Fortunately, they didn't with Win ME.

When XP was first released, in the dark days before SP1, MS offered a "Upgrade" version of Windows XP, which, in theory is sound. But, since the software isn't installing XP on your computer, just upgrading it to XP standards, it worked out for the worst. Instead of fixing the problem, they left them on the market.

But, I am trailing off the topic.

The 'fix' for this 100% CPU usage (which can last up to a day, apparently), can be recieved from Microsoft for the small sum of $35 US. Wait, do you mean that we would need to PAY for this fix? It seems a little crazy that of all the hotfixes, security fixes, and Critical Updates, that this would cost you money. Why? Because it is a nasty problem. Having gotten this fix for free throught my Developers Windows XP kit, it doesn't affect me. Only, it doesn't work too well after SP1a, which is the majority of the shipped XP software is.

So, why are we paying for it? Sure, you could wait until it is released ( The Microsoft Tech said it would be released sometime next year) or you can buy it. Is it fair that a software company that gives you little choice as to your choice of OS, charge you to fix it's own program?

Comments

Mr_Frog

on Jul 30, 2004

Or you can do this...

This will fix it:

The obnoxious bug in XP that causes Explorer to read the entire contents of broken AVI files before allowing any access to them is caused by bad behavior of shmedia.dll.

This problem manifests itself by causing Explorer to read the entire contents of an AVI file, regarless of its size or location any time the mouse pointer is hovered over it, or an attempt is made to access it in windows explorer. This causes 'permission denied' errors when trying to simply move, copy or delete these files as they cannot be changed while Explorer has an open handle on them.

This also causes a DoS situation where large AVI's are stored on remote shares and Explorer keeps reading the files from beginning to end each time they are accessed.

To correct this misbehavior in Windows XP, remove the following registry key.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\CLSID\{87D62D94-71B3-4b9a-9489-5FE6850DC73E}\InProcServer32

This will prevent Explorer from loading shmedia.dll in response to file property queries on these files. This will not effect your ability to play files, get file attributes, or even view thumbnails. Say goodbye to all explorer.exe 100% CPU issues.

And Solution #2 (basically does the same thing, except you are inactivating the file attributes option)...But it WORKS--No more locked .avi files:

Well windows seem to have a REALLY big problem when it comes to reading AVI files. It seems that when you click on an AVI file in explorer, it'll try to read the entire AVI file to determine the width,height, etc. of the AVI file (this is displayed in the Properties window). Now the problem with Windows is that if you have a broken/not fully downloaded AVI file that doesnt contain this info, Windows will scan the entire AVI file trying to figure out all these properties which in the process will probably cause 100% CPU usage and heavy memory usage.

To solve this problem all you have to do is the following:

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

Please note that this will no longer provide you with the windows properties displaying the AVI file information such as width, height, bitrate etc. But its a small price to pay for saving you resources.

Amazing what two minutes of Google searching can find. That will be $35 please.

-- B

Mr_Frog

on Jul 30, 2004

BTW...the link where I got this info...

spywareinfo.com

You're welcome.

-- B

Amitty

on Jul 30, 2004

thank you, and I already have all that information. You know, believe it or not, there are peopel that aren't technically inclinded, or know just enough to get into trouble. The purpose of the article wasn't for people to find me a solution ( Since I have found three), but to make people aware of the problem, and give another example of MS trying to get another buck. But that you for the response...I have some shiny new monopoly money for you

Mr_Frog

on Jul 30, 2004

You know, believe it or not, there are peopel that aren't technically inclinded

Oh baby, don't I know it.

or know just enough to get into trouble.

Those are the ones I'm really afraid of. At least the members of the first group are willing to listen and accept a knowlegable person's explanation, whereas the so-call "technophiles" will generally question what you're doing, because their way is obviously better. I've worked for a couple people who are like this, and it's annoying as hell. But us tech guys just gotta keep fighting the good fight. Unfortunately our enemies are usually several steps ahead of us.

-- B

Amitty

on Jul 30, 2004

I' m with you B.
I had someone call today to ask how to fix the green plug. At first, I wasn't sure what he met, because he said he was trying to put the cover back on the CPU ( Read: Tower) and broke off a prong. So, for 20 minutes I try and tell him that he could, I don't know, weld it back on, and keep asking him if he knows what he is talking about. Towards the end of the conversation, he breaks out at random ans says " Well, I guess I'll have to get another kind of mousey thing."
Mousey thing?
Apparently, somehow, he broke off the PS/2 port in the back off the motherboard. That resulted in a " I can't fix that" conversation, because I don't soder on Mobos. " What is the quick answer?"
Buy a new motherboard.

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