Problems opening folders

[cocoharley]

I'm not sure if this is the cause of my problems, but I started having problems yesterday

after I downloaded, installed, and used the trial version of Video Capture/Convert/Split/Merge/Burn

Studio. I tried to combine two .avi files with the program and while that was going

on, I tried to move some files from one folder to another. A window popped up with

the error message: "Internet Explorer has encountered a problem and needs to close."

After I chose not to send the error report, the folders closed (the toolbar disappeared

and reappeared). I once again attempted to open the folders to move some files and

the same thing happened soon after. The second time, I decided not to bother sending

the error report. I tried to open the folders once again and faced the same problems.

At that time, I thought it was because I was running too many programs at the same

time, so I just left things alone and waited until the program was done with combining

the two .avi files.

Earlier today, without any programs running, I tried to organize my folders again.

As soon as I opened a folder, any folder, I got the same error message again. At

first, it would be a few minutes before the error message popped up. As I tried again

and again to reopen a folder so that I could view its content, the error message

started to pop up earlier and earlier. Now, as soon as I open a folder, the error

message would pop up.

I wanted badly to watch a few video clips that I have on my hard drive, so I thought

I'd just forget about opening a folder to click on the files and just open Windows

Media Player and click "Open" to open a file that way. Well, that caused WMP to close

as well!!!

I deleted the newly combined file and emptied the recycle bin. The problem still

persisted.

I proceeded to run, ewido anti-spyware, Lavasoft Ad-Aware, Spybot Search & Destroy,

and Norton Antivirus, but did not find any major problems (just the regular cookies

here and there that were easily taken care of).

The problem still persisted though.

I then tried to do a System Restore (not sure if that'd help but I thought it was

worth a try). There were two dates to choose from and I picked a random date. After

the computer restarted, I got the following message from System Restore:

"Restoration Incomplete. Your computer cannot be restored to: [date] [action] No

changes have been made to your computer. To choose another restore point, restart

System Restore."

I did, and picked the other date that was available. Same results. Tried this over

and over again. Same results.

I'm not sure what other information I should provide that may help with the analysis.

Please let me know.

I'd really appreciate any help I could get! Thanks in advance.

[LLXX]

It looks like that program installed an incompatible shell hook.

Have you tried uninstalling it?

Next time, test out programs in a virtual machine (M$ Virtual PC 2004 is free) before installing them on your real machine if you don't know how to unpack installers and install manually.

[cocoharley]

I've uninstalled the program but that doesn't seem to help. I'm still having problems.

edit:

I did a quick repair using the Windows CD and the problem seems to have been fixed.

Edited August 22, 2006 by cocoharley