Classic Shell: Forum

New to Classic Shell. Fresh Win7ProSp1(64) + IE10. Don't know if its a Win, IE or CS problem. Attempting to provide info to id...

Problem signature
Event BEX64
App explorer.exe
AppVersion 6.1.7601.17567
Fault Module Name ClassicExplorer64.dll_unloaded
Exception offset 000007fef8d435eb
Exception c0000005
Exception Data 00000000 00000008
OS Version 6.1.7601.2.1.0.256.48

What were you doing at the time of the crash?

Am installing programs with several explorer windows open; don't remember doing anything unusual. Have seen the same error a couple of times now, so figured I'd better ask what info is needed so the next time it happens, I can give specifics. Somehow I've a hunch that it's IE10 related, but nothing to back it up.

BEX64 almost always means something Data Execution Prevention-related?

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

If Windows Explorer crashes then it is unlikely to be related to IE10. How often does it crash?
See if you can capture a crash dump as shown here: viewtopic.php?f=12&t=6

Have nearly same problem, please find some dumps attached.

Look like you used the instructions for investigating slowdowns. To capture a crash you need to use the command "procdump -e explorer.exe".

Ivo, you are right! Initially it seems, progdump did not sucessfully catch the event by the command 'procdump -e explorer.exe'.
So I tried the instructions for investigating slowdowns.
Meanwhile it managed to save some dumps during explorer crashes, see attachment.

What were you doing at the time of the crash? The dumps point to the thread pool manager, but Classic Shell doesn't use the thread pool, not directly anyway.

Nothing special, somtimes explorer crashes directly after start-up, sometimes the system works stabil half a working-day. But, if Classic Shell is in use, explorer
crashes at least once a day. Uninstalling Classic Shell resolve the explorer trouble; but that is not my prefered solution. To me it looks like a randomized mailfuntion. At leased it is not related to an particular userinteraktion.

The problem looks like a heap corruption, which can be caused by any software (including Classic Shell, of course, and from what you are saying it is the prime suspect). Unfortunately the crash dumps are not very helpful.

I see the App Verifier is running in the Explorer. Did you enable it on purpose?

Microsoft Application Verifier is not running in the Explorer for any special purpose. Even can't remember when added explorer to it. Maybe I did that during researching
for the root cause of the explorer trouble. Now I removed explorer from the App Verifier.

What else could be done to support debugging?

Clicking the submit-button I had a sudden insperation.
During debug I added entries below, found at the web, to the registry which add explorer to the App Verifier:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Windows Error Reporting\LocalDumps\Explorer.exe]
"DumpFolder"=hex(2):43,00,3a,00,5c,00,4c,00,6f,00,63,00,61,00,6c,00,44,00,75,\
00,6d,00,70,00,73,00,00,00
"DumpType"=dword:00000002

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Image File Execution Options\explorer.exe]
"GlobalFlag"=dword:02000100
"PageHeapFlags"=dword:00000003

So this is just another way to get dump-information about the explorer hang-up. It was inserted after trouble occured, not before.
Dumpfiles are about 360MBytes, which is of cause much to much for this forum.

OK, try these 2 things:
1) Change the DumpType to 1, and if it produces smaller dumps, send them to me
2) Remove both registry keys, and try to make new dumps using procdump

got two dumps by method 1, see attachment

Unfortunately the new dumps don't tell me anything I don't already know. There is a heap corruption, but by the time the crash happens it is too late to see what is causing it.

We can do two things to narrow down the problem:
1) You can try to figure out which component is causing the problem by installing them one at a time - is it Classic Explorer or the start menu? Once you find out, you can try selectively disabling feature to narrow it down further
2) I can make a debug build for you with a few more diagnostics in a blind hope it will catch something. I will try to do that a week from now.

Here are the Dump-files I got after Classic Start menu had been removed.
As next step I reinstalled Classic Start menu and removed Classic Explorer. Results will be reported next week.

That's great, Classic Explorer is the simpler of the two components and many of its options can be turned off. So we can more easily narrow down the problem.

Actually I don't think there is a need to test with just the start menu. Keep Classic Explorer installed, but go to the Internet Explorer -> Tools -> Manage add-ons. Disable Classic Explorer Bar (it will ask you if you want to disable ExplorerBHO as well, uncheck it). Log off and log in. Now only ExplorerBHO will be enabled. See if you can crash it.
If it crashes, disable ExplorerBHO as well.
If it doesn't crash, enable Classic Explorer Bar, but disable ExplorerBHO.

Changed setting, Disable Classic Explorer Bar, according your (Ivo) recommendations.
Please find corresponding dump-file attached.

Changed setting, Disable Classic Explorer Bar and ExplorerBHO, according your (Ivo) recommendations.
Please find corresponding dump-file attached.

Two of these dumps don't even have Classic Explorer loaded.
One of them casts suspicion on something called "mozy pro". See if you can disable it and check again for crashes.
It may not be a single application that's the problem. It may be incompatibility between two of them.

Unfortunately the backup-application called "mozy pro" is a must, installed by the system admin.
But I got permission to disable this service temporarily. Things are working more stable now. So your guess, it could be incompatibility, seems to be proven by that.
After more than one week of proper operation, "mozy pro" is still disabled, next crashes occured.
See dump-files for more details.