[jarvster2000]

In the past week, I have recently started to have a problem with the "Save as" dialog box in Word, Excel and even with Adobe Professional (so it isn't just an Office issue).

Basically, in the Save As dialog box, you have the five shortcut boxes at the side (My recent documents, Desktop, My documents, My Computer and Network Places). If I click on Desktop, each of the above programs then hangs.

Even if I choose desktop under the "save in" pull down menu or another method it still hangs - it will not display the desktop icons or files in the main window in the save as dialog box - it just goes white and hangs.

I used windows explorer to view the desktop files and move things to and from it and my desktop appears normal to the eye. My desktop was a little cluttered but I have cleaned it up and the problem remains.

Other steps I have taken - Disk Cleanup and Disk defrag, all windows updates. I did recently install messenger live msn but other colleagues have and it did not cause this issue.

Any help greatly appreciated

P.S - I'm noticing that on my dekstop a lot of the icons aren't being built properly and are the standard page icon where it hasn't loaded the real icon. Maybe I need to fix the icons?

Im using Windows XP Service Pack 3

Edited by jarvster2000, 12 March 2009 - 05:50 AM.

[Advertisements]

Hi jarvster2000,

Can you do this for me?

Click Start > Run and copy this command into the box
regedit /e C:\versclid.txt "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Shell Extensions\Cached"
Click OK and find the file C:\versclid.txt
Post the content of that file please.

[Metallica]

Hi jarvster2000,

Can you do this for me?

Click Start > Run and copy this command into the box
regedit /e C:\versclid.txt "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Shell Extensions\Cached"
Click OK and find the file C:\versclid.txt
Post the content of that file please.

[jarvster2000]

Hi Metallica - Thanks for the reply. the contents of C:\versclid.txt is as follows:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Shell Extensions\Cached]
"{750FDF0E-2A26-11D1-A3EA-080036587F03} {000214E8-0000-0000-C000-000000000046} 0x401"=dword:00000001
"{1e9b04fb-f9e5-4718-997b-b8da88302a47} {000214e8-0000-0000-c000-000000000046} 0x401"=dword:00000001
"{1e9b04fb-f9e5-4718-997b-b8da88302a48} {000214e8-0000-0000-c000-000000000046} 0x401"=dword:00000001
"{1cdb2949-8f65-4355-8456-263e7c208a5d} {000214e6-0000-0000-c000-000000000046} 0x401"=dword:00000001
"{A4DF5659-0801-4A60-9607-1C48695EFDA9} {000214E6-0000-0000-C000-000000000046} 0x401"=dword:00000001

[Metallica]

That looks as it should.

Can you check if this could be the problem:
Non-existing shares

[jarvster2000]

Thanks for your continuing help!

I checked out the link but that doesn't seem to fit this particular issue. This is a work PC and on a network but no-one else is having this problem. The desktop is saved under C: so it doesn;t appear to be a network issue.

The problem even happens on Paint if I try to save to the desktop in the save dialog box. I did try to open files using these programs and the same problem arises if I click on, or navigate to the desktop in the dialog box.

I have used TweakUI to rebuild the icons but that didn't fix the hanging issue. I tried a system restore and went back to 3 March 2009 (the earliest one I have) but that didn't fix it either.

EDIT: Just found another annoying problem - I always download from Internet Explorer to my desktop and that is the defualt download location (probably since it remembers the last location used). Now, the problem means that if I click on a file and the save as dialog bos comes up - it hangs as well!! I can download files to my dekstop using Firefox, however, since it uses it's own little download manager. Hmmm, this problem seems to be purely a problem of accessing the desktop folder through dialog boxes!

EDIT2: I left my PC and after a few minutes the desktop became accessible in the dialog box!! I switched between that and another location but the delay began all over again. I will try with saving in Word, but it would seem the issue is more of a massive delay than a crash.

Edited by jarvster2000, 12 March 2009 - 08:39 AM.

[Metallica]

That does still sound like the issue caused by a non-accessible network share.
My next step normally would be to run sfc /scannow, but that seems like a waste of time since I'm pretty much convinced that explorer is looking for a place that no longer exists.

Can you download and run this file:
http://www.kellys-ko...rateprocess.vbs
and let me know if that helps.

Note that some antiviruses freak out due to the vbs extension

[jarvster2000]

Problem fixed!!

I copied all of my desktop icons to a temp folder and all of a sudden the problem was gone. One by one I added them back but two of them caused real problems and even crashed windows explorer when I tried to click on them.

The two files were shortcuts to network drives (one was a shortcut to a folder within our old intranet Microsoft sharepoint) so it sounds like you were on the right track!

Anyway, I deleted the temp folder with the two shortcuts in and now Im free

Thanks for all your help - Now I can get on and do some work!!

[Metallica]

Glad we could help.

I was almost right.