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Thread: Argh! Help resolve my problem please

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    Senior Member JPreston's Avatar
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    Argh! Help resolve my problem please

    In the last few days my PC has developed a consistent habit of crashing to desktop any and all applications that open a browse window (i.e. a 'Save As...' window) a few seconds after this window opens. This happens when attaching files to an email in gmail, browsing files to burn to disc using Imgburn, 'Saving as...' in office applications, and so on. Every application that ever opens a window to browse my folder structure now crashes to desktop, guaranteed (in fact it just vanishes, there is no error message produced). At all other times my system is perfectly stable.

    I'm running anti-virus and anti-spyware, and have not changed my system recently. Is there any chance of fixing this without a clean install? I'm using Vista x64, lucky me.
    Quote Originally Posted by Bertrand Russell

    The trouble with the world is that the stupid are cocksure and the intelligent are full of doubt.

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    Seething Cauldron of Hatred TheAnimus's Avatar
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    Re: Argh! Help resolve my problem please

    so if u have notepad and paint open, if you click save as in paint, opening a "common dialogue" it crashes immeditately, bring down all notepad too?

    Do you have to try to write hte file, or is it just bringing up the dialogue?
    throw new ArgumentException (String, String, Exception)

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    Senior Member JPreston's Avatar
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    Re: Argh! Help resolve my problem please

    Just Paint will crash, everything else will continue running. It's just bringing up the dialogue that causes the crash, it doesn't get as far as trying to write anything (and also this happens when just browsing to a file in FF or IE, Imgburn etc).

    Cheers for the phrase 'common dialogue' BTW, might help my google-fu in resolving the problem (but it's something so general and widespread that I'm sure I'll crack and re-install soon).
    Quote Originally Posted by Bertrand Russell

    The trouble with the world is that the stupid are cocksure and the intelligent are full of doubt.

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    Seething Cauldron of Hatred TheAnimus's Avatar
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    Re: Argh! Help resolve my problem please

    Hmm.

    These dialogues are extendable, by both the app your running and people who do "dodgy" stuff on your PC.

    Try disabling your antivirus, and seeing if it still happens? They often inject some hooks which become apparent when a daligoue like that enumerates files.

    In windows, it checks the registry to see where the recent places on the left should point, often enumerates My Computer, and the folder your last looking in.

    It sounds to me like something is messing that up. That could be a virus scanner that has its hooks in. A dodgy HDD/file system driver/file filter driver.

    Its a bloody long list i'm affraid.
    throw new ArgumentException (String, String, Exception)

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    Senior Member JPreston's Avatar
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    Re: Argh! Help resolve my problem please

    Sorted now I think, cheers! Yes it was my antivirus, I was using Avira Antivir which according to their site (and Windows Security Centre, most of the time) supports Vista however in the last week or so Windows Security Centre stopped recognising it. I installed SP2 yesterday, which brought up a notice that Antivir has compatibility issues, and having switched to AVG Free Edition today all seems well.
    Quote Originally Posted by Bertrand Russell

    The trouble with the world is that the stupid are cocksure and the intelligent are full of doubt.

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    Re: Argh! Help resolve my problem please

    Bizarre, I have beeen using Avira without problems on both 32 and 64 bit versions of Vista. Was it an corrupted install? and have you found any traces of malware since?
    Respec'

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    Senior Member JPreston's Avatar
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    Re: Argh! Help resolve my problem please

    May well have been corrupted somehow, Security Centre intermittently told me that I had no AV but most of the time (IIRC) Antivir did indeed report it was working via Security Centre. SP2 brought up the incompatibility message, so I thought I might as well switch AV since I had been having problems recently. Perhaps Avira broke Antivir w.r.t. Vista 64 with an update in the last week or so, or maybe an update just didn't install correctly for me.

    No sign of any malware being picked up by AVG, touch wood
    Quote Originally Posted by Bertrand Russell

    The trouble with the world is that the stupid are cocksure and the intelligent are full of doubt.

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    Senior Member watercooled's Avatar
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    Re: Argh! Help resolve my problem please

    Security Centre pops up from time to time saying KIS is disabled on my PC too. It's a fairly common occurrence so I wouldn't worry too much about that but you could try re-installing your original AV to see if it was corrupted. Otherwise, NOD32 and Kaspersky are about the best paid AV packages IMO. You could also run Eset's online scanner or Trendmicro's Housecall to see if they pick anything up. I think the Eset scanner only runs on IE (I'm not sure about the new version though).
    http://www.eset.com/onlinescan/
    http://housecall.trendmicro.com/

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