Many thanks for the several responses and associated input. I can see
from the comments that I need to be much more specific regarding my
system and the media players I use. I have WIn XP Home ed. and use
both VLC ( 0.8.6c) and WIn Media Player (11). My Explorer does not
show a preview window of the video as some apparently do.
1. not all avi s cause the shut down of Windows Explorer - just
certain ones and it occurs with both video players.
2. when Explorer shuts down I am still able to continue viewing the
avi if I drag the Windows Explorer pop up box out of the way.
3. when I click the Close button in the pop up box I am taken back to
the Desktop which is in the Active Desktop Recovery mode - in order to
get back to the normal Desktop I have to go to display properties and
customize the desktop.
4. the Wndows Explorer error signature box contains the following
information:
AppName: explorer.exe AppVer 6.0.2900.3156 ModName xvid.dll
ModVer 0.0.0.0. Offset 0004dbdd
5. when I click on the technical information I get hundreds of lines
of text data in a scrollable box that is not reproducible.
6. in Event Viewer I think I have found the error event properties
which reads as follows:
Faulting application explorer.exe, version 6.0.2900.3156, faulting
module xvid.dll, version 0.0.0.0, fault address 0x0004dbdd.
0000: 41 70 70 6c 69 63 61 74 Applicat
0008: 69 6f 6e 20 46 61 69 6c ion Fail
0010: 75 72 65 20 20 65 78 70 ure exp
0018: 6c 6f 72 65 72 2e 65 78 lorer.ex
0020: 65 20 36 2e 30 2e 32 39 e 6.0.29
0028: 30 30 2e 33 31 35 36 20 00.3156
0030: 69 6e 20 78 76 69 64 2e in xvid.
0038: 64 6c 6c 20 30 2e 30 2e dll 0.0.
0040: 30 2e 30 20 61 74 20 6f 0.0 at o
0048: 66 66 73 65 74 20 30 30 ffset 00
0050: 30 34 64 62 64 64 0d 0a 04dbdd..
7. I have the latest version of Flash player
8. shimgvw.dll and shmedia.dll mentioned as possible problems appear
to be associated with the explorer preview window which I do not seem
to have
Hopefully the above information will be helpful to those with far more
expertise than I possess.
Thanks again for the assistance