Programs Freezing When "Save As" Windows Appears

Are you the Administrator of the PC? If so, I'd try creating a new User account, and see if the same behavior occurs there. You could try it from the hidden Admin account as well.

Built-in Administrator Account - Enable or Disable

A Guy

I will post to the smart people here, see if I can get you more help. A Guy

Hicoga did you try also running this Disk Check

These would not hurt to run either


http://www.superantispyware.com/

http://www.malwarebytes.org/products/malwarebytes_free/

http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/download/adwcleaner/download from bleeping computer

If yo really want to thoroughly check try TDSSKiller Rootkit Removal Utility Free Download | Kaspersky Lab US the download is in very small print under The TDSSKiller utility detects and removes the following malware:

Last resort would be to reinstall Audacity mate

Did you establish a Clean Boot as Bill suggested earlier? I would uncheck everything except your AV in msconfig>Startup and >Services tabs after ticking Hide all MS Services. You don't need anything but AV, and if you use them gadgets, stickies and sync starting with Win7.

In addition to the full, updated Malwarebytes and SuperAntiSpyware scans, I'd then run SFC /SCANNOW Command again. In fact it should be run until there are no more damaged files to repair.

Even then it may require a Repair Install.

But if this is still the factory preinstalled Win7 with all of the bloatware and duplicate utilities which conflict with better versions built into Win7, I would do what most tech enthusiasts do and Clean Reinstall - Factory OEM Windows 7 following the steps in the blue link to get and keep a perfect install. You'll then be able to experience for the first time Win7 native perfect performance.

Hicoga said:

Hello, thanks for taking the time to read this and help me out.

Hi Hicoga, your welcome. Please take the time to read mine.

Hicoga said:

Just a few weeks ago I started having this problem that I first noticed with Audacity. Whenever I would record some audio in Audacity and try to export it, the program would crash. I don't even get to name the file. As soon as the Save As window pulls up, the program crashes.

Can you remember back a "few weeks ago":

1. Did you install any new programs, were they before, along with or after Audacity and Vegas?
2. Did you make any changes in how your operating system (OS) works?
3. Where did you obtain the programs Audacity, and Vegas, did you have any problems installing them?
4. Is your machine networked with any other machine?
5. How much free space do you have on your HDD?
6. What are the sizes of the files you are trying to save?
7. Do you use any type of "tweaking program"?
8. Did you use CCleaner recently?
9. Have you ran the antimalware programs that ICit2lol suggested, yet?
10. Think, no detail is too small.

Hicoga said:

I thought this was just a problem with Audacity but I was working in Sony Vegas as well last night and the program would freeze if I tried to save my project. It froze in the same way, the window pulls up and then it crashes.

These are the only two programs I have this problem with but having them both come up at the same time leads me to believe that it isn't a problem with the programs themselves but instead with my computer.

Please reply soon,
~Hicoga

Depending on your answers from my questions above, it may still be a problem with Audacity, and Vegas.

Your problem usually manifests itself when there is a problem with Explorer (not to be confused with Internet Explorer), Visual C++ and especially Windows Shell.

Some theory from two different links:

   Information

Notifying the Shell

Notify the Shell of the change after using SHFileOperation to move, copy, rename, or delete files, or after taking any other action that affects the namespace. Actions that should be accompanied by notification include the following:

• Adding or deleting files or folders.
• Moving, copying, or renaming files or folders.
• Changing a file association.
• Changing file attributes.
• Adding or removing drives or storage media.
• Creating or disabling a shared folder.
• Changing the system image list.

Source: Managing the File System (Windows)

More:
Introduction to the Series
A shell extension is a COM object that adds some kind of functionality to the Windows shell (Explorer). There are all kinds of extensions out there, but very little easy-to-follow documentation about what they are. .........

This guide assumes you are familiar with the basics of COM and ATL. If you need a refresher on COM basics, check out my Intro to COM article.

Part I contains a general introduction to shell extensions, and a simple context menu extension to whet your appetite for the following parts.

There are two parts in the term "shell extension." Shell refers to Explorer, and extension refers to code you write that gets run by Explorer when a predetermined event happens (e.g., a right-click on a .DOC file). So a shell extension is a COM object that adds features to Explorer.

A shell extension is an in-process server that implements some interfaces that handle the communication with Explorer. ATL is the easiest way to get an extension up and running quickly, since without it you'd be stuck writing QueryInterface() and AddRef() code over and over. It is also much easier to debug extensions on Windows NT-based OSes, as I will explain later.

There are many types of shell extensions, each type being invoked when different events happen.........

Source: The Complete Idiot's Guide to Writing Shell Extensions - Part I - CodeProject

When Program Developers write programs, they need to follow the build conventions of the OS they want to apply their programs to. If the developers are off even the tiniest bit, it can cause problems. That is why I asked where did you obtain Audacity, and Vegas?

For now, run the antimalware programs that ICit2lol suggested first, then run CHKDSK. There could be problems with the HDD and/or HDD file system on your machine.

You can run, in this order, and make sure you use an elevated CMD prompt:
Option one step #8 Disk Check For the disk error check. This can take up to three hours or more, be patient.

Then: SFC /SCANNOW Command - System File Checker This one only takes 10 to 15" If it comes back Okay, good. Even if it comes back that there were no violations run it two more times with restarts of your machine after each run.

Then run: Disk Defragmenter - Open and Use

Please upload the chkdsk log in your next post, Option Two: Check Disk (chkdsk) - Read Event Viewer Log
I would also like to see your CBS log after these scans Step #4: Windows Update Posting Instructions


After those three scans go back to Audacity and Vegas and try the "Save As" command.

Did you run ANY malware scans??