After Latest Patches, Right-Click Desktop Freezes the Desktop

[jaykchan]

Yesterday afternoon, Windows-Update automatically downloaded 6 patches.
Right after rebooting the PC, I right-clicked on the desktop trying to
get into Display Properties to change the resolution of the screen.
But instead of seeing the pop-up menu, I saw the hour-glass, and the
desktop didn't respond when I clicked on it. I still could access the
tasks-bar and runs some programs. But when I close those programs, I
found that the desktop image was not updated -- like the desktop window
could not respond to the request to redraw itself. I could clean up
the garage on the screen by opening and closing Tasks Manager; this
redrew the wallpaper of the desktop; but this didn't re-paint the
desktop icons.

Seem like "explorer.exe" freezes whenever I right-click the desktop.
The only way that I can recover from this problem is to reboot the PC.

The PC has Windows-XP-Home-Edition with latest service pack.

The last time I was able to right-click the desktop was on Monday
morning (2 days ago). Therefore, I am sure that the system starts
having this problem from the recent patches.

What's should I do to recover from this problem? I don't really want
to restore the system to before-the-patches because I am afraid that I
would not get the security protection of the patches, and I would be
forced to re-apply the patch and back to square-one.

Is there something simple that I can do to fix this?

I can terminate "explorer.exe" through Tasks Manager. But I don't know
how to re-launch "explorer.exe" to get back the desktop.

Any idea? Thanks in advance for any help.

Jay Chan

 

[Richard in AZ]

You may not want to restore, but that still sounds like your best bet.
Then change you update to let you choose the downloads to install and download the updates one at a
time.
Make a restore point between each one. Then if one of them is a problem to your machine, you will
be able to identify it and remove just that one.

Make sure you machine is clean of any malware first.

 

[J Ski]

The problem is with update KB908531
I am having some problems as well.
I'll post my findings when I know more.

 

[Guest]

Same problem with right click on the desktop. I can right click on an icon
and everything is ok. I can right click within an application also.

I wonder how many people have to have this problem before Big Softy replies.

 

[jaykchan]

Thanks for the tip. Seem like KB908531 also has other problems from
reading other latest posts in this newsgroup. I will restore the
system to before the patches, and then apply all the patches other than
that one.

Jay Chan

 

[jaykchan]

Unfortunately, restoring the system even back to one month ago cannot
fix the problem (and I am sure that I didn't have this problem just a
couple days ago). Seem like the latest patch has embedded in the
system so deep that even the restore-system mechanism cannot remove it.

Fortunately, I find a way to get around with this problem by simply
terminating Verclsid.exe from Tasks-Manager. I find this tip from the
thread called "Security Update MS06-015 breaks Windows Explorer
functionality" in this newsgroup posted here very recently. Seem like
Verclsid.exe only shows up in Tasks-Manager after I have right-clicked
the desktop, and killing it helps me to get around with this problem.
The downside is that I need to find a different way to do everything
that I want to do in the right-click context menu. So far, I can
change the Display Properties through Control Panel instead of through
right-clicking desktop; this is good. I will find out the alternate
way of doing other things in the right-click context menu later.

Hope a good patch that fixes this bad patch will show up soon.

Jay Chan

 

[Ron]

Afetr the recent updates my Windows Explorer would not close
correctly.

Removed only KB908531 via Control Panel/Add or Remove Programs/Select
Show updates Box/re boot...... and no more problems for last 2 days.

Also turned off the Automatic Updates as KB908531 was attempting to
reinstall itself.

r.

 

[Guest]

Jay, Restoring back to 2nd of April helped me. Not sure that's when I
downloaded the particular patch, but now my desktop is ok. Re-installed
updates, same problem, resotred, now it's ok again. Maybe this won't work on
all machines.

 

[jeff.toole]

Please take a look at this post:

http://groups.google.com/group/micr...&q=verclsid+hui&rnum=5&hl=en#a9fb82836c014916

 

[tpsharp]

You do not need to do a restore, just remove the update from Add/Remove
Programs, this fixes the problem, I had to do it on my PC. Lets hope
Microsoft fix the problem long term.

Trevor

 

[Ramesh, MS-MVP]

Problems in Windows Explorer or the Windows shell after you install security
update MS06-015:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/918165

- -A u t o m a t e - - -

Download Q918165_HP_Fix.reg below and save to Desktop. Right-click the file
and then choose Merge. Restart Windows for the changes to take effect.

http://windowsxp.mvps.org/reg/Q918165_HP_Fix.reg

--
Regards,

Ramesh Srinivasan, Microsoft MVP [Windows XP Shell/User]
Windows® XP Troubleshooting http://www.winhelponline.com


You do not need to do a restore, just remove the update from Add/Remove
Programs, this fixes the problem, I had to do it on my PC. Lets hope
Microsoft fix the problem long term.

Trevor