Installed SP2, CAN'T RIGHT-CLICK ANYTHING!!

[Adam8281]

After installing SP2, I can no longer right-click icons on the desktop or taskbar. When I do the system hangs for a couple minutes and then explorer restarts. I ended up doing a system restore and going back to the pre-SP2 configuration, but I'd really like to figure this out. Just doing Google searches I haven't found anybody else talking about this issue. Does anyone here have a clue as to the nature of the problem? I am running Norton Internet Security 2004, and after installing SP2 I disabled the Microsoft firewall and kept the Norton one going. Thanks for the help.

 

[redfishbluefish]

Do you have DivX installed?

rb.

 

[Adam8281]

Yeah, I do have DivX installed. Why?

 

[redfishbluefish]

Here's a link to a description and possible solution to your problem...


DivX Support

Note the text

DivXNetworks will be releasing SP2-compatible versions of all affected products shortly.

.

Now, the NTBugTraq list has a little to say on the matter....

Can't blame this on XP. Divx is doing things considered dangerous by SP2 and this was reported during the ßeta

This is an *old* problem -- incompatible Windows shell extensions crash the Explorer shell and produce "The memory could not be 'written'" errors when either searching for files or right-clicking on icons.

The person who reported this to the NTBugTraq list noted that:

Rename EncodeDivXExt.dll to _EncodeDivXExt.dll (or delete from registry this key : [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\*\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers\EncodeDivXExt])
then System seems to work like a charm.

I'm not giving advice on how to fix your problem, 'cos if I do and it breaks I could be in trouble, but... do you need DivX? I'd uninstall it and nag the DivX people to sort it out.

rb.

 

[Adam8281]

Thanks for your sleuthing! Checking out DivXs website, it sounds like the problem especially affects people who are running Dr. DivX (as I am). I do use Dr. DivX a lot, actually, to encode digital videos from my camcorder, so I'm reluctant to uninstall it. DivX lists on their site a temporary fix that involves disabling the new DEP feature in SP2 (Data Execution Prevention). I am going to try this temporary fix, and I'll report back as to its success. The solution involves changing a line in the boot.ini Thanks a bunch for your help!

 

[redfishbluefish]

I'd prefer to keep DEP running, in all honesty. It's _potentially_ a Good Thing.

The dodgy regsitry hack might be a better move, but again, I'm not giving advice ;-)

rb.

 

[Adam8281]

Well, I just tried disabling DEP, and everything is working fine, right clicks included. I don't think I really need DEP, or at least, I can probably go without it until DivX comes out with a true fix. Service pack 1 didn't have DEP, and I've been fine with that for a long time. I'm behind Norton Internet Security 2004 with it's firewall, and I'm also behind the hardware firewall of my router.

 

[Bluefront]

I started having a right-click problem also after a clean XP/SP2 install. Turned out to be the Spy-Sweeper 3.0 prog I was using. Un-installing it fixed the problem.....