[Salisian]

So I've heard that explorer.exe (and the deplorable DrWatson) have problems with displaying video files as thumnbails, conflicting codecs, et cetera.
But even after a fresh install of windows, my explorer.exe crashes even when I attempt to open even a text file, no matter what program I use to open it.

Most of the time I can run an .exe file in explorer safely, but running pretty much anything else comes with the risk that explorer will crash (Data Execution Prevention- To help protect your computer, Windows has closed this program) and I'll have to close it (and the meddling DrWatson) and reopen it in task manager to get my computer back. Sometimes I will just get the error popup and still be able to shunt it off to the side of the screen and continue with what I was doing (and I can open text files indefinitely when I do this), but sometimes it just closes explorer right out.

Given that I tested this on a fresh install, I'm -pretty- sure it's not malware or anything like that, and I can identify pretty much every line that HiJackThis generates. Can anyone give me an idea as to what's going on?

[Advertisements]

No mention of Service Pack 2 (SP2) in your login identity. SP2 added a whole lot of new fixes to XP so if you haven't installed it you should.
SP2 is free for users of genuine copies of Windows: http://www.microsoft...p2/default.mspx
(As is usual for Windows updates, you must use Internet Explorer for that web page)

[pip22]

No mention of Service Pack 2 (SP2) in your login identity. SP2 added a whole lot of new fixes to XP so if you haven't installed it you should.
SP2 is free for users of genuine copies of Windows: http://www.microsoft...p2/default.mspx
(As is usual for Windows updates, you must use Internet Explorer for that web page)

[happyrock]

tell us EXACTLY what steps you are using to run any .exe program...

[Salisian]

Sorry- yes, I do have SP2 and a legit copy of Windows.
As far as running executables (though you've lost me as to where that might be going), double-clicking an icon in explorer works fine. It's when I try to do that with, say, pictures or text, that the problem arises.

[happyrock]

you can turn off dr watson by following the instructions here...
back up your registry first...
try right clicking on a text doc and click on open with...select the program of you choice like notepad...word...office ...

you can also look in administrative tools...event viewer and look for anything red or yellow

[Salisian]

So here's the behavior observed with the right-click method:
Text files work without an explorer error 100% of the time when using "Open with:" but 0% of the time when using "Open"
Picture files crash explorer 100% of the time when I use "Open" or "Open with:" unless I use "Open with" and specify MSPaint, in which case it always works.
I have a whole bunch of reds in the event viewer, but they all seem to be associated with this same error, for which Microsoft has no answers.

[happyrock]

then you probably need to repair windows....the how to is here...