[aquarius012273]

I suddenly started having a weird issue from today. Whenever I double-click on any desktop shortcut (created by me or even the default desktop shortcut to my document etc) to open any folder, I am getting an error message and the error reporting dialog box - which refers to the problem being duser.dll (in almost all occasions) and shell32.dll (once, when I was closing a folder). The Explorer crashes and the folder window closes.

Everything else seems to be working normally. I can even access the folder if I run explorer.exe in the double pane view, but the moment I double-click some folder icon to open it, the explorer crashes.

I have all the latest service packs/patches/updates etc. My anti-virus (Symantec) and anti-spyware programs are current and running. I ran the System File Checker to check for altered system files, but it came up with nothing.

This has become a very irritating problem which I cannot seem to correct. I would appreciate any help on this.

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Hi aquarius012273...

Try a System Restore to the most recent restore point before the problem began.

wannabe1

[wannabe1]

Hi aquarius012273...

Try a System Restore to the most recent restore point before the problem began.

wannabe1

[aquarius012273]

Try a System Restore to the most recent restore point before the problem began.
wannabe1

Thanks for your reply. I already tried that; didn't work. For some reason (perhaps unrelated), system restore never works for me. Whenever I do a system restore, I always end up getting the message that the system could not be restored to my selected checkpoint, and I should select another. This happens even if I select one of the systems own default checkpoints.

However, I have to mention here that the problem sort of went away on its own last night after I had posted the message asking for help. It was very weird and I am not at all sure that it will not come back. For the past few weeks (or perhaps a month), I noticed one strange behaviour - upon regular shutdown, there would be a dialog box coming up that said on top "trying to close TRd:ww..." (the rest of this line went beyond the width of the dialog box) and there was an END NOW button. On pressing it, the computer would shut down normally. I tried to research this issue, but not having much to go on, did not find anything. Of course, I ran A/V and Anti-Spyware programs afresh, but did not detect anything unusual.

Last night when I tried to shut down the computer, the same dialog box appeared. However, this time, there were two other dialog boxes that popped up with error messages, that had "GINA UI" written on top. When I clicked OK to those message, I got a final message that the GINA UI and Winlogon had crashed. The computer shut down normally, and thereafter, my original duser.dll problem went away completely!!! Now I don't even get the strange "TRd:ww" message, nor any GINA UI error message.

At the Microsoft website, GINA UI is defined as a shell for Windows logon (I did not read thoroughly). I have to learn more about this, and that may give me a clue as to what really happened.

[wannabe1]

The problem you were experiencing can be caused by either the shell or exe (explorer) being corrupt or the associations in the registry that relate to them have been modified. I don't know if Windows can fix itself, but let's not look a gift horse in the mouth.

If the problem returns, post back to this thread so we can have a look at it.

[aquarius012273]

Hi, Wannabe1!
A part of the problem is back: the TRd ww error. I managed to get the entire string that appears in the error message, surprisingly, it is TRd ww: C:\program files\Windows Defender\MSASCui.exe - the Windows Defender Beta 2 anti-spyware program!! This error message comes up when I try a shutdown or restart of the computer, giving me an option to "END NOW"; if I don't, it gives me options to "CANCEL" (and go back to what I was doing) or "END NOW" (force quit the program and shutdown).

Searching for this error, I found that other people have found this error pointing to other programs (some of which turned out to be trojans), but not Windows Defender. A Google Group search pointed out a 2002 posting that related the TRd ww error to Total Recorder which - up to version 3.3 - was incompatible with XP. But I use version 4.4, which is not known to have any problem with XP.

I know from your other posts that you prefer starting by looking at the HijackThis log. So here is my log; I hope you can help me with this problem.



Take care.

Attached Files

•  HiJackThis_log.txt   7.54KB   132 downloads

[wannabe1]

Let's disable a couple of things and see if the problem ceases.

Click Start, then Run, type msconfig and click "Ok". Under the "Startup" tab, locate MSASCui.exe and remove the tick next to it. "Apply" the change and click "Ok".

Then disable the Spybot S&D Tea Timer. Use this Guide, only remove the tick from Tea Timer.

Reboot. Upon startup, you will receive a Selective Startup dialog window...this is normal. Tick the box to not show it again and click "Ok".

If this stops the error, re-enable MSASCui.exe in msconfig, "Apply" the change, and click "Ok". Reboot and see if the error comes back...leave Tea Timer disabled.

[aquarius012273]

Okay, this is what I found out after trying various combinations. The Teatimer has nothing to do with this. The behaviour does not change in presence or absence of tea timer.

If I prevent MSASCui from loading at startup (by using MSCONFIG or setting the Defender Service as Disabled or Manual), the TRd ww problem at shutdown goes away. However, even in this case, if I run the MSASCui to do a scan, the error comes back at shutdown!!

Your comments, please?

[wannabe1]

Tea Timer can cause problems...particularly when trying to run repair operations and running checks...hence I had you disable it. I never have liked that feature and have it disabled on my machine, but then I keep very good backups ov everything including the registry.

With Windows Defender still in Beta, all these issues are new to us, too. Let me search some of the Microsoft Developer Newsgroups and see what I can come up with. I will be back to you shortly.

[wannabe1]

First suggestion is to uninstall Windows Defender from Add or Remove Programs in Control Panel...Download and install a fresh version. Windows Defender

[aquarius012273]

sorry for the slightly late reply. I un-installed WD Beta 2 and re-installed the latest version after downloading. No change. Still the TRd ww: comes up at shutdown!!