Background:
First, let me give a little of my computer
background. I've been working
with/building, repairing, hacking computers since the
early OSI "Superboard" came out. We
had a huge 4 kb of RAM to work with back then. You learned to program
small/tight programs with all that memory. A floppy drive cost more
than $1,000. I write programs in several languages and
generally just like hacking and fooling around with computers.
I realize this article is way off the Locost topic but I have
recently had a few strange problems appear in using my
computer.
I did a google search and found out that many people were
having the same problems with all sorts of "cures" that didn't solve my
(similar) problems.
I solve car and computer problems by trying to determine the
root -cause- of the problem. I generally don't shotgun a
solution. I want to understand the underlining problem first and -then-
come up with the solution. That comes from decades of doing electrical
engineering design work.
1st Problem: Right clicking in a program crashes
the program.
A few weeks ago my "PowerDesk" file manager
program started crashing when I would right click on selections. I put
up with it for awhile and finally decided to reinstall the
program. That didn't help. I did a google search on "right clicking
crash" and found
-lots- of people were having the same problem with all sorts of
programs crashing. I tried some of their "cures" and nothing
worked.
People on the web were blaming various programs for causing the
problems etc. I didn't even have most of the programs that were
supposedly causing the right click problem. I guess you get
your moneys worth with free information (mine included ?).
The common thread through the various knowledgable solutions was that
it was a "context menu" problem. These are menus that appear when you
(right) click within a program. After reading what the
solutions were attempting to do I finally found one that made the most
sense and cured my
problem.
The solution:
Here is a link that explains how/why to solve
problem:
http://www.techsupportforum.com/microsoft-support/windows-vista-support/287024-solved-right-click-crash.html#post1687902
Basically one programs context menu.dll is interfering with another
programs .dll
Detailed intructions, how to get rid of the
problem:
1. Down load ShellExView from
http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/shexview.html
install it and run it (give the program time to
find all the .dlls running on your machine)
2. in the menu area at the top of the page, click on "options"
and then "Filter By Extension Type" in the drop down menu
3, click on "Contex Menu" and then click "OK"
4, after data is presented, click on the CLSID Modified Time column so
that the newest files are at the top of the list
5. right click on the 1st Extension Name presented and
disable
the newest installed file (you can also select a name and
press F7
the disable command
takes affect immediately and you don't have to close ShellExView
6. test the program that is acting up to see if it behaves
(you do need to restart the problem
program after each disable)
7. repeat steps 5. and 6. until you find the .dll that is causing the
problem.
8. enable the .dlls that were NOT causing the problem by selecting them
and pressing F8.
05/30/09: DAPMenuShellExt Class (Context Menu for DAP) was the
program that caused
my problem.
12/03/09: AVG Shell Extension Class (Context Menu for AVG) also
affected PowerDesk.
No one on the web mentioned these programs as the guilty
ones. PowerDesk seems to be the only program affected by the
right click problem on my computer.
2nd Problem: When
launching Firefox, AVG issues a warning message about cookies.sqlite.
The location of cookies.sqlite file
is in the following sub-directory;
c:\documents and settings/mini/application data/
mozilla/firefox/profiles/4641xl2s.default/
This file is not a threat to your computer. It is used by Firefox in
the normal course of its operation.
Solution #1 is an elegant way to cure the problem . This
method creates an exception in the AVG Resident
Shield - Directory Excludes menu for programs that cause the error
message. I would imagine that in time, AVG
will realize the error of their ways and issue an "update" that
recognizes that the Firefox cookies.sqlite is not going to end the
world.
Solution #1: (AVG exclusion)
1. Open the AVG user interface, select "Overview"
2. double click on "Resident Shield"
3. click on [Manage exceptions] at bottom of page
4. click on [Add Path] and navigate to the Firefox directory in
"C:\Program Files"
5. click on [OK], then click on [OK] again
6. Click on [Save changes] and then close the AVG user interface.
NOTE: I discovered afterwards that a program called
"Feedreader"
will also cause the AVG error message if it is running before
you
launch Firefox. I created an exclusion path in AVG to
the Feedreaders directory the same way as I did for Firefox and
Feedreader no longer causes the error message. So if you find other
programs causing problems just add then to the exclusion list.
Solution #2: (run.bat file way to
"cure" problem)
If you don't want to exclude files, here's another temporarily
way to get rid of the warning message until AVG gets its act together.
This solution is to
run a .bat file that deletes the cookies.sqlite file just before
Firefox is launched. It's rather brute force but it does work.
1. Create a run.bat file in the C:\Program Files\Mozilla
Firefox\ sub-directory. (mine is named;
\Mozilla Firefox 3.5 Beta 4\)
2. Put these statements in the run.bat file,
-----------------------------
del c:\documents and settings/your_user_name_here/application
data/ mozilla/firefox/profiles/4641xl2s.default/cookies.sqlite
cd C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox 3.5 Beta 4
call firefox.exe
exit chr$13
-----------------------------
Click on run.bat intead of "firefox.exe" to start
your browser. You will see a black DOS box open to delete the
cookies.sqlite
file and then Firefox will load. When you close Firefox, the DOS box
will close. You can close the DOS box manually after Firefox starts if
it annoys you. Firefox will create a new cookies.sqlite file each time
it runs.
NOTES:
Your profiles/nnnnnnn.default/ portion of the
address will have different numbers and letters than
my "/4641xl2s.default/" name. You will have to navigate to the
sub-directory and see what the sub-directory is named.
I'll post more major problems and solutions as I have them. Let's hope
this is all there will ever be (HA!).
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