Windows explorer crash opening a folder with "thumbnail" view

I found it to be very annoying when WE was crashing as soon as I try opening a folder (multimedia content) with "thumbnail" preview option set. It is because WE tries to open/run/preview the MM file and thus if the file is corrupt WE will crash.

My SOLUTION:

Just change the view option to list or details :)

the eventual solution is to find the bad file and remove it.

here is something I found on internet while searching for solution:

http://www.moviecodec.com/topics/3588p1.html

1. "Windows XP Explorer has a 'feature' to provide a preview in the Details box on the left of the file you have selected, if it's supported. Image files, HTML pages, video clips, MP3s, etc are all previewed (even with the folder view open).

If you have a large movie clip and it either is corrupt (ie. no index from a partial download) or it uses an unsupported codec, then Explorer tries to load the whole file. This can slow your computer a lot and prevent deleting/renaming/moving/etc the file until it's finished.
Simply do the following steps:
1) Open a command window (Start->Run, type in 'cmd' hit enter)
2) To remove image preview, type and hit enter
regsvr32 /u shimgvw.dll
3) To readd image preview, type and hit enter
regsvr32 shimgvw.dll
4) To remove media preview, type and hit enter
regsvr32 /u shmedia.dll
5) To readd media preview, type and hit enter
regsvr32 shmedia.dll

2. even easier - make two batch files

shmediaoff.bat that has this line in it:
REGSVR32 /U SHMEDIA.DLL

and then shmediaon.bat (to turn preview for files that works) back on:
REGSVR32 SHMEDIA.DLL

3. this also seems to fix the avi problem without having to turn the SHMEDIA.DLL on/off.

http://www.annoyances.org/exec/forum/winxp/t1061425126

registry hack. Run regedit and find the following key :- HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\SystemFileAssociations\.avi\shellex\PropertyHandler Delete the "Default" value then close. You should now be able to see .avi previews almost instantly but without the crashes.

To use this fix make a new text file, paste the following code in it, file extension change to inf. Rick click on the file and choose install. Done.

[version]
signature="$Windows NT$"

[DefaultInstall]
DelReg = Reduce.Reg

[Reduce.Reg]
HKLM, "SOFTWARE\Classes\CLSID\{87D62D94-71B3-4b9a-9489-5FE6850DC73E}\InProcServer32"
Suggested links:

http://www.tweakxp.com/tweak2123.aspx
http://forums.tech-arena.com/archive/index.php/t-4971.html

hope windows Vista improves on this feature ;)