I had this problem where Windows XP wouldn't let me delete, rename or move any AVI/DivX files, it would always say the file is in use or explorer.exe crashes. It turns out it's bug in explorer, get rid of it with this

just unregister the buggy shmedia.dll with the following command....run this cmd line assuming XP is installed on C:



The obnoxious bug in XP that causes Explorer to read the entire contents of broken AVI files before allowing any access to them is caused by bad behavior of shmedia.dll. This problem manifests itself by causing Explorer to read the entire contents of an AVI file, regarless of its size or location any time the mouse pointer is hovered over it, or an attempt is made to access it in windows explorer. This causes 'permission denied' errors when trying to simply move, copy or delete these files as they cannot be changed while Explorer has an open handle on them. This also causes a DoS situation where large AVI's are stored on remote shares and Explorer keeps reading the files from beginning to end each time they are accessed

Thanks to Doom9

Great find Gryphonic, i thought it was just my buggy XP!!!

Thanx

EDIT: Would this fix the same bug with MP3's?

Are you having trouble deleting mp3's??

yes, exactly the same as you describe avi's, i have had major probs with avi, fixed now thanx!! and occasional problem moving or deleting mp3's, hasnt happened since running regsvr32 /u C:\windows\system32\shmedia.dll

Will let you know if problem occurs in future!!

Before i reformatted my HD, whenever i right clicked on an avi the monitor would turn itself off and i would have to turn it on again by hand. It doesn't happen now i reformatted but thanks for giving me something to blame the problem on

CCleaner will fix most problems as above

CCleaner (Crap Cleaner) is a freeware system optimization and privacy tool. It removes unused and temporary files from your system - allowing Windows to run faster, more efficiently and giving you more hard disk space. The best part is that it's fast! (normally taking less that a second to run) and Free.

Cleans the following:

* Internet Explorer Cache, History, Cookies, Index.dat.
* Recycle Bin, Temporary files and Log files.
* Recently opened URLs and files.
* Third-party application temp files and recent file lists (MRUs).
Including: Firefox, Opera, Media Player, eMule, Kazaa, Google Toolbar, Netscape, Office XP, Nero, Adobe Acrobat, WinRAR, WinAce, WinZip and more...
* Advanced Registry scanner and cleaner to remove unused and old entries.
Including File Extensions, ActiveX Controls, ClassIDs, ProgIDs, Uninstallers, Shared DLLs, Fonts, Help Files, Application Paths, Icons, Invalid Shortcuts and more... Backup for registry clean.
* Windows Startup tool.

So u don't need a program like "unlocker" after performing this operation.right?

Yea, that code worked great! Thanks.

I had an issue where if I have multiple avi files in a single folder it would flash a memory error and Explorer would crash when I would open the folder. I would have to open the folder and quickly drag a single avi file out before it crashed. Once I got down to a single avi file remaining, then it would work normally. Thumbnail view seemed to be a part of it too.

Anyway, thanks for the tip! Problem solved.