Classic Shell: Forum

After installing Classic Shell v4.0.5, Explorer would crash upon launch just about every time.

Here's some event logs:















--

I went back to Classic Shell v4.0.4, which works just fine.

(Win8.1Pro/x64)

Try capturing a crash dump with Classic Shell 4.0.5: viewtopic.php?f=12&t=6

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I am a Windows enthusiast and helped a little with Classic Shell's testing and usability/UX feedback.

I caught a crash with ProcDump.
The .dmp file is huge (8.95 MB)!
What on Earth does these files contain?

It contains the state of the explorer process. It allows me to see the point of the crash and hopefully deduce the cause.

Zip it and attach it here or drop it in the FileDrop folder at the bottom if this page: http://www.classicshell.net/downloads
If you can make a few more that would be even better.

Yeah, I figured that much.
I just don't understand why it's this big.
It only contains text, right?

No, it doesn't contain text. It contains portions of the process memory, information about loaded DLLs, the running threads, the stack for each thread, etc.

BTW, this is a "minidump". A full dump can be multiple gigabytes.

BTW, are you the same person as "Szentei Balázs" who posted on Facebook? The symptoms look the same but he's using Windows 8 instead of 8.1

Nope. Different person.

So are you going to send me the dump files or not? Without them it is very difficult to even begin to guess what is going on.

Sorry, but I currently don't have anything installed on my computer to open .dmp files.
Nothing against you guys, but I just don't feel comfortable uploading these kind of files without having looked at them first, and edited out any potential personal information.

From the Classic Shell v4.0.5 changelog, I see that you have added the option to pin drives and folders from Explorer.
I have removed the ability to pin programs to both the Taskbar and Start Menu by using the Local Group Policy Editor..
Could this be related?

I can assure you that if you drop the file in the mediafire folder or if you send it directly to classicshell@ibeltchev.com nobody but me will have access to it. And I don't care about your data, I care about improving my software.

Minidumps contain the state of the code, not the state of the data. Unless you use the options -ma or -mp, very little data is captured. Also the Explorer process doesn't usually access personal data, especially since it crashes on startup. If you try editing the dmp file you will most likely corrupt it and make it useless.

And besides, NSA probably already has all your data anyway.

@Tomaso, The dump file will mostly include data about the state of the Explorer.exe process as it was in memory when it crashed, not your personal data. Beyond finding out what's crashing Explorer.exe, your data is of no interest. It may also be a shell extension that's crashing it and not Classic Shell.

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I am a Windows enthusiast and helped a little with Classic Shell's testing and usability/UX feedback.

I too have receive a few explorer.exe crashes I uploaded the .dmp file in to your file drop link.

Thanks, boyds. The information from the crash dump is inconclusive, but at least helps eliminate some of the potential causes.

The next step is to determine which Classic Shell component is the cause of the problem. Please temporarily disable the start menu by unchecking "Start automatically for this user" in the General Behavior tab. Log off and see if the crash happens again. If it does then it is not the start menu but most likely by the Classic Explorer component. Save the Classic Explorer settings to XML file and attach it here.

I am also having this issue. However i'm quite sure it is caused by classic shell considering i just bought this PC today.

I'll try disabling it and see if the crash occurs again.

I've attached a crash dump, just to be sure i'm not having a different issue.

Everybody, please elaborate on the circumstances of the crash. What are you doing at the time? Like opening the start menu, clicking on a shortcut on the Desktop (is it a program, a document or a folder?), clicking on the taskbar, or what.

It crashes when i click on a shortcut. For example, clicking on "This PC" might cause a crash.

This can happen with any of the shortcuts in the start menu.

I was able to isolate the problem and I have a temporary fix. Try the following.

For 32-bit Windows:
1) Download the attached file ClassicExplorer32.zip
2) Go to the Classic Shell installation folder, for example C:\Program Files\Classic Shell
3) Locate the file ClassicExplorer32.dll and rename it to _ClassicExplorer32.dll
4) Extract the ClassicExplorer32.dll from the zip file and place it in the Classic Shell folder
5) Log off and log in

For 64-bit Windows:
1) Download the attached file ClassicExplorer64.zip
2) Go to the Classic Shell installation folder, for example C:\Program Files\Classic Shell
3) Locate the file ClassicExplorer64.dll and rename it to _ClassicExplorer64.dll
4) Extract the ClassicExplorer64.dll from the zip file and place it in the Classic Shell folder
5) Log off and log in

Please report if this fixes the issue. If everything checks out I will release a new official version in the next 24-48 hours

(Note that the DLL fixes are only for Classic Shell 4.0.5. Later versions include the fix)

OK, thanks.

I left it running overnight, with the procdump running, but this morning the problem didn't occur.

Thanks for the new .DLL files.

So far so good, no crashes.

However (maybe by intention) the items launched off of the start bar, seem to lag about 1-2 seconds more than before.

The change is very minor and has nothing to do with launching stuff.
When you say "start bar" do you mean "start menu", "task bar" or maybe "start screen"?

Yes, you seem to have fixed it!
No crashes anymore.
Thanks a lot.
Sorry for being difficult about the dump file.

I'm not sure what boyds is talking about, but I'm not noticing any lag.

Just wanted to let the author know that I too had experienced explorer crashes with 4.0.5. I was only able to fix it by reinstalling W8.1 and using the previous Version. I have been using Classic shell through many versions and this was the 1st time I had a problem.


It also seems to be really noticeable when right clicking and going to the properties, such as 'this pc'.


I am now running on the last version, and everything is working fine.

It just seems when I click the start menu, select "This PC" it seems it takes just that moment longer to populate the icons in the 'This PC' window (eg: C:\, network shares, etc)

The problem is not related to "properties" but to launching Explorer after it was not used for a while. Since the properties for "This PC" actually open an Explorer window instead of the small Properties dialog, it crashes.

When you say that you are running the last version, do you mean the original 4.0.5 or the patch that was uploaded in the previous message?

Try turning off the Windows Search Indexing.

I can also confirm that the DLL file fixed the crashes for me too.

As for the lag boyds mentioned, i can't really say since I've only started using classic shell yesterday.

Thanks for the help!

No, I mean I went back to 4.0.4 and all problems went away. And I do understand that going to properties launches explorer - but it also has nothing to do with being idle or idle time - as explorer crashed repeatedly several times in a row just by launching it by clicking on my pc. It also crashed when selecting mapped drives, where it gave a weird message and even though I had an entered set of credentials via Cred manager - it also wiped out that.

Hi there,


I have been installing classic shell for about a year now on clients windows 8 pcs and just lately every single computer I put it on explorer keeps crashing when you try to open say documents or pictures folder from within the classic shell start button.
Had 3 yesterday and 2 today and all different brands of computer. They were all windows 8.1.
Any idea when a fix for this will be out?

@nathand - try the fix listed here: viewtopic.php?f=12&t=2405&view=unread#p11866

Thanks for that. I just decided to install 4.0.5 on my own 8.1 computer and sure enough explorer also crashed every time I tried to open folders from within classicshell start.
I just applied the 64 patch as you described above and it worked! All working fine now.
Surely this is not just happening to me though? I'm not doing anything unusual when installing. I download from your site install it and every single persons computer crashes since the release of 4.0.5.

Classic Shell 4.0.6 is released which incorporates the fix for this crash.

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I am a Windows enthusiast and helped a little with Classic Shell's testing and usability/UX feedback.

I've kind of gotten over the seemingly universal hatred for the Windows 8 navigation changes. However, so many friends, family and clients are having a hard time dealing with it that I have been recommending ClassicShell. And let's face it - the new Windows navigation isn't just bad because it's new - it's bad because it's, well, bad...
After a time, I realized I couldn't answer questions about ClassicShell's use and features because I didn't have it on my own system. So I installed 4.0.5. Had a lot of explorer.exe crashes. No, I can't tell you specifically what triggered it - never noticed, and became impatient and uninstalled and quickly remedied the situation.
Guess I'm not one to give up, figuring I can't continue recommending it if I can't make it work myself. Came across this thread and was pretty impressed at how available the developer is to the masses. Don't see much of that...
Going to install the newly released 4.0.6 and see what happens.

Thanks for being there...

I am having a similar problem, although it may be a bit different, and I think I've found the cause:
Currently running 4.05 on four different 8.1 computers (mine, wife's, and family) but this issue is only occurring on my main system (real bummer).
What happens is intermittently (not every time), when I open Windows Explorer, there is a significant pause, then explorer crashes, then re-opens. Oddly, when it does this, it turns off Carbonite, McAfee, and a few other programs (strange).
I have found that this happens reliably when I turn on the 'Classic Explorer Bar' feature, and it goes away with same feature turned off - reproducibly.
Has the patch noted above been applied to 4.1?

Yes, version 4.0.5 has a bug that can crash Explorer if you have buttons in the toolbar to toggle the navigation, detail or preview panes.
The bug is specific to version 4.0.5. All other versions don't have the bug.