windows explorer crashes every time I right-click a file

[Guest]

Starting today, every time I open Windows Explorer and right-click a file
name a, Windows Exploer pop-up indicates that the Explorer program needs to
close. It then sends an error report to microsoft. Then the Dr. Watson
debugger pop-up appears and indicates that it, too, needs to close.
The only new software that i installed today was an audio format conversion
facility called Audio Converter 5.0
Is Windows Explorer a separate program that I can re-install or is it simply
a component of XP? Does anyone have any suggestions on how to proceed?
Thanks

 

[Ricky]

Here's a couple of links to check..
Right-click is slow or weird behavior caused by context menu handlers:
http://www.mvps.org/sramesh2k/slowrightclick.htm

http://www.winxptutor.com/sp2/divxcrash.htm

 

[Guest]

The problem is definitley one of the codecs that the program installed. I had
a similar experience with the Xvid codec. Go to Control panel>System>Hardware
tab>Device Manager and find the listing for audio codecs. Find the ones that
the program installed that are causing the crashes and remove them. Be
careful not to remove any of the system's regular codecs.

Of course you could just go to Add/Remove Programs and do it that way too.

 

[Ramesh, MS-MVP]

Harry,

You're correct. Third-party Codecs are another possibility. MMCompView v1.10 might help how to identify the culprit: http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/mmview.html