Solved Explorer Crash after installing "TakeOwnership.reg"

[ThereWasADream]

Ever hear of a nice context menu you can install that allows you to take ownership of all files and subfiles? I have, and it messed up my explorer. It will frequently crash when I right-click folders, but most often when trying to right click drives.

I have tried:

1. Windows 7 repair tool
2. Windows 7 repair using command prompt to reload registry from 4 days before this error occurred
3. Registry repair tool from this site
4. Registry repair tools from around the internet
5. Manually deleting context menu handlers and seeing if it helps (fixes it, but is inconsistent and not permanent, it will start crashing again)
6. Using shellex viewer and another program similar to it

My dump files are attached in a zip file.

THANK YOU SO MUCH IN ADVANCE FOR ANY HELP!!!

 

[Brink]

Hello ThereWasADream, and welcome to Seven Forums.

Please go ahead and upload a copy of the TakeOwnership.reg file you used, and I'll be happy to post back with a .reg file that will completely undo any registry entry it made to remove it from your context menu to hopefully sort this for you.

 

[ThereWasADream]

Oh, that's another thing I forgot - I also tried simply uninstalling it. I have uploaded both the "Install" and "Uninstall" reg files. See what you can do but I doubt it will work, I've run both multiple times.

 

[Brink]

After looking at them, I don't see how they affected your context menus like that. Possibly some other item may be at fault instead.

If you like, you should be able to do a system restore using a restore point dated before you had this issue to undo and fix it.

 

[ThereWasADream]

Thank you, Brink. I was afraid it might come to that. It is odd, though. I never had this problem prior to using this tool.

I did accidentally use the "un-extracted" versions of these files before I extracted and used the actual files. Could that have caused this problem? I will upload them here. In case my description is confusing, these are the files contained inside the .zip folder I downloaded.

 

[ThereWasADream]

Except, it looks like the exact same file...size and all...I will upload the .zip too just in case it extracted the files during upload.

 

[Brink]

Nar, it would be the same extracted or not extracted.

Hopefully you will have a restore point available that's not to far back.

 

[ThereWasADream]

I don't have any restore points, I have never been able to get it to work right for me, although it's been a while. I have just been backing up my files regularly. I just stinks to reinstall everything.

Could you or anyone else take a look at those dump files, though? It's supposed to give an indication of what went wrong when Explorer crashed...I'd hate to reinstall my OS and find out later that it could have been fixed.

 

[Brink]

I'm afraid that I have no idea about the dump file.

Usually, it's some installed 3rd party program that added a context menu is at fault for messing up right click or context menus. Was there some program you installed before this started to happen?

 

[ThereWasADream]

Kingdoms DLC for Medieval Warfare II...and a mod for it (Third Age Total War), but I am pretty sure it doesn't have any reg files attached. A Razer Naga mouse. I think that's it.

 

[Callender]

Suggestion

I looked at your crash dump and can't guarantee to fix the problem but here's something to try for a start.##

If I'm correct - you have Spybot S&D installed.

There might be an issue with Spybot S&D shell integration (right click menu).

Open Spybot (right click on icon and "Run as Administrator")
Click "Advanced User Mode"
Select Settings and click "System Integration" tab
Uninstall "Windows Explorer Integration"
Click "Apply" and "Ok".
You can also launch settings using the icon in the System Tray.

Reboot when done and see if that fixed it!

Edit: If the above doesn't work - downloaad the latest version of Autoruns

Autoruns for Windows v12.03

Extract the files to a folder on your desktop and from that folder find autoruns.exe - right click and choose "run as administrator"

When the scan has finished click the Save button and save as a text file (.txt)



Upload it and attach it to your next post.

 

[ThereWasADream]

Thank you, I do have Spybot S&D. As soon as I get home I will do as you say and let you know what happens. Incidentally, Autoruns is one of the programs that I recently used to try and fix the registry myself. I will have to redownload it, though, as I had trouble with it not functioning as I expected and I uninstalled it.

 

[Callender]

Autoruns

Thank you, I do have Spybot S&D. As soon as I get home I will do as you say and let you know what happens. Incidentally, Autoruns is one of the programs that I recently used to try and fix the registry myself. I will have to redownload it, though, as I had trouble with it not functioning as I expected and I uninstalled it.

Autoruns doesn't require installation. You just download the "Autoruns.zip" and extract to a folder on your desktop and run the executable from there. A new version was released yesterday.

It you can't get it to work don't worry too much. I just wanted to get a look at the entries that show what's integrating with Explorer shell. (Other than Spybot) - There are other ways of finding this information.

 

[Berton]

but I am pretty sure it doesn't have any reg files attached

Pretty much all Windows-based programs will write to the Registry when they install although the User will not actually see it being done and there'll not be any .reg files in the program's Folder.

 

[ThereWasADream]

THANK YOU to Callender and +9001 internet points as well! Removing the explorer integration from Spybot S&D totally fixed the issue. I was wrong about the registry hack ruining explorer...it's just what made me notice the issue in the first place.

 

[Brink]

Great news.

 

[ThereWasADream]

I should also say thank you to everyone else who was helping me - you taught me a lot even if you didn't directly fix the problem.