Windows Explorer crashes when drives right clicked

[Ron Miller]

My three-year-old installation of XP (SP1, all critical updates installed),
recently started suffering Windows Explorer crashing whenever a drive is
right-clicked in Windows Explorer. It's polite. The tired old error
message that Explorer has encountered a problem and needs to close comes up
first. Of course, the screen then blanks except for the wallpaper and
everything is finally refreshed.
I cannot access the CHKDSK GUI, but I can run CHKDSK from the command
prompt, and the drives all pass muster. Likewise Norton Disk Doctor claims
it can't run its checks because Windows or another program has control of
the disk, but it will schedule a CHKDSK on reboot, and all disks are OK.

This apparently has something to do with icons because this Registry Tweak
works: http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_tweaks.htm , line 157 DOES
correct this problem, BUT it works ONLY one time. I merge this REG file,
and I can then right-click on a drive icon ONE time. Trying to do it again
results in the Explorer crash. I can reapply the REG merge, and it will
work again -- ONE time.
I can find nothing about this in the Knowledge Base.
Virus definitions are up to date and antivirus scans are negative.

Why is this happening?
Why won't the Registry tweak cure the problem permanently???

Ron Miller

 

[Ron Miller]

Replying to my own post:

I had two mapped drives in XP. One was the Windows folder on another
computer on my home LAN and the other was to a directory on a data CD in an
optical drive on that other computer. Once I disconnected the mapping of
the optical drive, Explorer became stable once again.
I think the moral is not to map to removable media unless that media is
always in the drive, but I hope someone who knows more about this will chime
in here to explain what was going on, especially why the Registry tweak
would correct this problem, but only one time.

 

[Ron Miller]

. . . but the Disk Management Console still crashes when selecting
"Properties" after right-clicking on any drive icon. What in the world is
going on here??

 

[Ron Miller]

.. . . and now it crashes consistently again even though there are NO mapped
drives.
I give up.

 

[Squirrel]

Try checking your hard drive with a diagnostic tool
according to model of your HD, go to manufacturer homepage

 

[Ron Miller]

Thanks for the suggestion, but I didn't need to try it. The problem was
finally solved for good. The culprit was Spy Sweeper. I purchased this
program after it won a PC Mag Editor's Choice over Spybot S&D and Adaware.
It really is a good program, but, by default, it adds a spyware sweep option
to the context (right-click) menus in Windows Explorer. Overriding that
default and removing that option from the context menu immediately and
totally resolved the problem I was having in Explorer, My Computer, and the
Disk Management Console.
I notified Webroot Software of the bug, and I hope they address it.

In the meantime, it's possible to keep using Spy Sweeper because that
context-menu option is never used, anyway. The developer's initial approach
to this problem should be simply changing the default behavior of this
option in Spy Sweeper so that it's OFF.