Constant Explorer/thumbnail crash. MSVCR80.dll culprit? How to fix?

Hi RProsser,

Found a reference regarding Netframework in regard to this
please goto Programs/feature >> features(top left) FULLY enable NF 3.5.1
(keep it enabled its needed to fully update your system from the KB below)
it may ask you to reboot.
Possible that this will cure the problem, test it please
If your still back at square 1

The file relates to this KB ----- from an elevated command mode, copy/paste the following

wusa /uninstall /kb:2538242

REBOOT

Try your system with your previous checks, as you may not need to re-install the update

failure >> re-install KB.


Roy

Friends, sorry for the delay in replies, and thanks to all who have spoken up since!

I just came back to this site to share some observations, and found lots of contributing thoughts. Odd ... I never got an email notice on the last 10 or so posts. Funny thing is, I used to and there is nothing in the spam folder.

Since I was unaware that there were so many recent suggestions, I was trying new things on my own. Here's what happened.

After lots of tidying-up, i.e., removing/reinstalling programs that were old and crusty AND deleting everything from Advanced System Care (except their driver update) things started improving. I also uninstalled and reinstalled Sage Thumbs.

I should also note at this point that while browsing using Fire Fox or Chrome, I sometimes drag a website's URL to the desktop or a subfolder. When I do that, the icon is immediately rendered as a graphical thumbnail representation of the website, not the Fire Fox icon.

I guess I must have installed a utility to do this long ago, but I can't recall what it was. Perhaps it's Mystic Thumbs but I don't find any reference to it on the computer now. As far as I know, Sage Thumbs does not render website files like this, does it? If not, does anyone have an idea what program it may be?

Here is why I ask: Anyway, as I said, things started getting much better, however there was the occasional Explorer crash when opening a folder that contained, among other file thumbnails, some drag-to-the-desktop browser URL files.

After some testing, I found that two types of URL/thumbnails crashed Explorer EVERY TIME I opened the folder: They were "xxx xxxx - Google Search.URL" and any search done on Ebay.com. So, while in "icon only" mode, I did a global search for those icon/address links, deleted any with those extensions, restarted, deleted the icon cache in Sage Thumbs, went back to "thumbnail mode" and have not had an Explorer crash since (knock on wood).

Conclusion: I do not know if it was a combination of things, or simply this URL icon issue that caused the issue. Regardless, it's worth noting.

Thanks again for all the help from you folks! : )

Callender replies: Well done. You might want to mark the thread as "Solved"

“Don’t jinx it... ” I thought before typing ...”don’t reply lest the problem comes back.”

Yes, things have gone well over the weekend, but fifteen minutes after replying, I clicked into a folder with URLs and Explorer EFFING crashed again. Arrrrgh!

I think Sage Thumbs is working just fine now since it does not render URLs. I think the problem is with the utility I once loaded to render URLs in Explorer as thumbnails. (I couldn’t recall the utility if you will remember.)

So, I reviewed the last crash dump (attached as a Zip file), searching for the word “thumb.” Besides other entries, that I recognized, I see this that I did not:

RVA 000087DC, 00000000`04b20000 - 00000000`04b32000: 'C:\Windows\HTML thumbnail preview\64bit\HTMLPreviewShellExt.dll

Ah, now I remember! I got the code from here a few years back: https://www.aveapps.com/htmlpreviews.html

No idea if this is the culprit but my problem is with saved URL file thumbnails so it seems very likely. This is not a program of sorts, it’s just a DLL file called “HTMLPreviewShellExt.dll” that you add to the registry (attached as a Zip file of what you can download). The Read Me says “Make sure you have the Visual Studio 2005 SP1 Runtime Files installed.” Well, I did that recently (uninstall/reinstall), along with all the other MS Visual C++ files, including those much more recent.

For the heck of it, I followed the install instructions again, which is nothing more than “Run register.bat with Admin rights.” At this stage, I guess it can’t hurt, but maybe I need something newer than some eight-year-old code. I searched around but did not find much.

Yup, gonna have to hold off on "Solved" for a bit longer.