My Videos folder crashing explorer.exe

[dmguitar0]

I have Windows Defender installed, and whenever I open the My Videos folder, which contains tons of movies, Windows Defender warns me that malicious code is being run, and it has to close explorer.exe.

While I can sorta play some of the movies (by having the expand folder option for My Documents on the Start menu) some of them completely crash media player when they run, while some others play fine. My problems began at the same time I installed a DVD burner and Nero from NewEgg.com, except I dont know how that could be related. I have yet to encode or burn a single movie, and I installed the drivers via the included disc, then updated them and the firmware. I also installed, then quickly uninstalled, the Nero 6 suite that was included because I suspected it to be the problem (it would crash often when going through a directory and trying to select a file).

Also, I tried running Windows Defender to find what was the cause, and it found nothing in detailed scans. I also used AVG, and Spybot to find it, again - nothing. I renamed the folder to My Videos1 - that had no effect. I copied several of the movies into c:/temp/videos/ and the problem was passed along. The only thing I can think of, is that there really isnt a problem, and I should allow an exception for this folder in Windows Defender, as suggested by MS when I see what to do about the problem. However, I am leery about this, and have held off on doing so.

EDIT: the program which reports the problem to MS sometimes crashes in the same way also, during the reporting phase of explorer.exe's shutdown.

Some system specs...not sure they matter here...more upon request

Win XP Pro (sp2)
Nero 6 (currently uninstalled)
burner: Samsung 18x Lightscribe (url: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16827151136 )
burner drivers and firmware: fully updated, driver ver 5.1.2535.0

[dmguitar0]

crap! its spreading!!! i began messing around tryin to test my move files theory again, and made a small amount of progress, it wasnt happening except when i opened certain files, and then i found that i have more stuff i can watch elsewhere in my Bitcomet directory. however, now that crashes also!

and the Dr Watson Postmortem Debugger is what crashes along with explorer.exe. I was incorrect in my original post. it does not crash in the SAME way, it crashes in another way. it does the unresponsive program dialog, and when it dies explorer wont close until i crtl+alt+del, and end the drwtsn32.exe process

[Davelray]

Usually means you have corrupted or viral infested video files in the directory. Welcome to the downside of bittorrenting files from unsafe sources. Only resolution I can think of for you is to go through your videos until you find the culprit file or files and then remove them.

[dmguitar0]

Only resolution I can think of for you is to go through your videos until you find the culprit file or files and then remove them.

How would you suggest I do that? Seriously, cuz I see no rhyme or reason to it, and my virus scans with AVG, Kaspersky, Trend Micro, and Spybot all came up negative.

If there is no other solution, I will delete em all. But not before trying any alternatives that may be suggested.:sad:

[caperjack]

uninstall defender and see what happens

[dmguitar0]

damn...isnt that whats stopping the code from being run?

o and its new years eve baby! YAY-A

[caperjack]

damn...isnt that whats stopping the code from being run?

Yes ,But what code,when it can't find it in a search, spybot and others don't find it ,maybe the defender program is the problem

[iftitaj]

I guess your folder view is set to Thumbnail view ....... change it to list view or some other view. That will hopefully solve this problem.

@Davelray: Its not the problem of infected files .... actually my same windows configuration in terms of essential softwares installed (dual XP OSes) can generate this kind of error separately ............ I mean if one windows XP starts crashing explorer.exe , other doesn't. And vice versa .......... its of a long experience of mine over 10s of multiple winXP installations. So its somewhat a problem not related to any file-infection but looks more like a problem of explorer.exe's capability of generating thumbnails (seems like corrupted).

[DenisRHuber]

I experience the same problem - in my Dutch Win XP version - after installing AVS4You Video converter. That program also asked me to install Windows Media Files Runtime 11 and I believe that is what created the problem.

I can open the My Video subfolders, but NOT the folder itself. I copied the whole folder and this works for me
Denis, Netherlands, runnig XP SP3

[DenisRHuber]

The problem must have been caused by the Thumbnail view indeed, in combination with a corrupt *.avi that I'd just created with my AVS trial version. I could not delete tumbs.db.db isolution was to open a program (Paint) it's explorer module is preset to image files. I could drag and drop allmost all files to a temporary folder. I retrieved the *.MOV by entering the extension. Then I proceeded to completely delete my Videos folder and rename the temporary folder. All is working fine now. I will switch off the Thumbnail option when I'm working on these fiels again....