blog: rogue shell extensions

[nikos]

A popular topic relating to diagnosing xplorer² (and other) crashes, this thread was
originally posted in the xplorer² Professional forum.   Moved here 19-May-2010 =fg=
=================================================================

here's the comment area for today's blog article found at
http://www.zabkat.com/blog/10Feb08.htm

[snakebyte]

Excellent article!

I would rate this as my favorite X2 blog so far. I guess this generic information can be applied to analyze any application crash in windows.

Cheers!
_________________
Help! I'm an AI running around in someone's universe simulator.

[Demetris]

I think a definite article is missing in the first sentence: Working with THE windows shell...

Also, I'm not sure about phrasing like this:

The majority of crashes you may experience working with xplorer² are invariably caused by such poorly programmed DLLs — but xplorer² takes the blame!

It seems defensive (no need to get defensive), and it also seems to quantify ("majority") -- no need for this either, in my opinion. I would like much better something like this:

Sometimes x2 crashes -- and very often the culprit is such a rogue shell extension. -- Without majorities and minorities!

~~~~~~

Other than that, I agree with snakebyte -- the article is excellent: the narration is very good, the technical issue is presented in language that is very easy to follow, and the diagnostic method has general application.

Thanks for an interesting and useful article!

[JimKueneman]

Hi Nikos,

  There is a bug in Delphi that causes these crashes.  Next time you get one have user contact the author and point them to my website:

www.mustangpeak.net/hooks_fix.htm


Jim

[tvgm2]

Thanks for these posts!

[nikos]

[JimKueneman]

[rsleegers]

I should probably start a new thread but your shell extensions blog came at a time when I was having problems loading the editor2. At first I thought it was F3 shortcut problem, but F4 worked fine. Then I noticed other programs were not launching properly, so I thought it might be a shell extension problem. Looking in my event logs showed some, "not a valid Win32 application" errors. I checked for obvious virus and spyware (clean).

However, in the end it was a rogue log causing the problem. It was supposed to be saved to "\program files\program name\log name", but was in fact being saved to "\program" due to an unquoted parameter (the app created a script so I didn't know where it was, at first). On startup, Windows even "helpfully" suggested it rename this file to prevent problems, but the file came back.

To make a short story long, renaming this file also corrected the F3/Edit problem. This Microsoft support page led me to the final solution.
_________________
Richard
Registered xplorer² user since 4/30/2008

[ckit]

Folder Guide 1.1 (made in 2006) can cause problems with xplorer2 pro when closing.
Error is runtime 216 which as I understand is a Delphi error.

Just posting to make others aware of it.
_________________
xplorer² pro 1.8.0.12 x64 on Win7 Pro x64
AnVir Task Manager Pro, Avira Premium, Executor, Glary Utilities Pro, Process Lasso Pro, WinRAR

[joba]

It look consistend that when I used Mozilla Firefox I get the Runtime 216 error. I did not use any other  Delphi program as fas as I can determine. Is there anybody else that experience the same?
_________________
Joba

[nikos]

is this a xplorer2 or firefox problem?

[joba]

It is when I close xplorer.
_________________
Joba

[nikos]

then it is one of your shell extensions that causes it. If you get me the crash minidump file as explained below i can tell you which one it is:
www.zabkat.com/x2cs_bug.htm

[dapxin]

This is a great piece for all the right reasons, the least of which is introducing me to such a fine rhyme-word:

Stoic!

veryNice

[Flux]

Just for your information: runtime error 216 = general protection fault.

I read about that Delphi bug long ago, so I was hoping most of the faulty programs were updated, but it seems I was overoptimistic.