When I hover the mouse pointer over video files (to read the bubble info), it causes the desktop to flicker (refresh?). If I persist then, usually after 3 or 4 files but sometimes immediately, Win Explorer will bomb taking the desktop with it, After a few seconds the desktop will recover but WE has to be relaunched. If, however, I click rather than hover then WMP will launch and the video will play as expected. File types include avi, mpg and wmv (though the latter are less "sensitive". Not sure about mov files but they're associated with vlc. Internet research has found reference to this behaviour when in thumbnail view for which a suggested solution is to revert to detail view, But, perversously, it is the other way round for me - ie the problem is in detail view! Also it does not seem to be a problem in third party exploreres. This behaviour seems to have coincided with the aquisition of a video capture decice (EasyCAP - yes, I know!) and experimenting with various capture softerware - uLead, AmCAP and NCH Debut - and video processing apps such as VirtuakDub and Format Factory (It's quite a challenge finding a successful combination of these to capture, which is restricted around 4:3 from a 16:9 tv, in a suitable format to be reproceesed to the correct resolution - but that, itself, is not the subject of this post). Edit: As I write, WE is behaving but I haven't connected the EasyCAP nor launched any of the aforementioned apps so that could suggest a focus for investigation but, even if any such combination does proove to be the culprit, would still be interested to know by what mechanism - something to do with codecs perhaps? [WinXP sp3, dual-core cpu, 2mb ram]