A computer anomaly I'm getting really tired of... help!

[InCreator]

It's tied to NUMEROUS programs. Programs that let you browse for file.

Sometimes (and 'sometimes' means annoyingly often), when I'm browsing for saving/opening file and browsed folder is currently Desktop, program closes. No warning, no dialog, nothing INSTANT QUIT.

Daemon Tools, 3ds max, ArtGem, Photoshop, and some other programs have this anomaly.
I draw for few hours, decide to save, when picking save name accidentally browse to desktop - BANG! - program closed.

Lost a LOAD of things due this anomaly.

Why does it happen? It happened on previous machine and other version of XP too. What is this dark and mysterious power of browsing Desktop that kills an active program?

But it's random. Some day, it never happens. Other day, it happens all the time. It's not dependent of antivirus etc things, that I know. It's directly tied to Windows XP, happened on Professional and happens now on Home Edition.

Anyone has a clue?

[LGM]

Google for something called DrWatson. That might have something to do with it. It's a windows program tied to explorer. May be something.

[LUniqueDan]

Strange problem indeed. The fact that it happens on 2 differetnts OS make me really suspicious of the presence of a Virus.

But you told us it's not the case...  strange.

Is there anything else? I means : some soft refusing to start or some program closing alone?
(in that case that's hard disk bug)

Personnally I'll try 2-3 others antivirus (AVG - Avast - Antivir) run from the 'no failure mode' (F8 while booting).

Good luck.
If I find something else, I'll post it.

[InCreator]

Nope. It rather seems that some programs have this bug and others do not.
I'm not so sure though. For example, on ArtGem and DaemonTools this happens about 30% of time.
On some other programs, it seems quite rare. My machine has always been ad and virus free (and when not, they had regretted badly their evil deeds ) and I'm always trying to keep memory-resident software at minimum.

I have a dark suspicion that this is something tied directly to directX. Things that use DirectX all time, like Game Maker or 3ds Max often cause anomalies with other programs that could be open.

Which leads weird stuff like the one this thread is about.
Another theory - Winamp (agent?). That's one of few things that I have open about 95% of time and had on every system I've ever owned.

Still, I hope I'm not only one with such strange thing out there.

LGM - I have no idea how MS error debuggers work, but this might be good idea: I keep DrWatson open and continue my casual computer use. If I fall onto problem again, maybe DrWatson gives some insight.

[Shane 'ProgZmax' Stevens]

Virii are not the only thing that can make your day miserable.  Malware, particularly recently, have become very insidious and annoying.  For example, I somehow got the TDSS malware that does the following wonderful things to prevent itself from ever being removed:

1.  Silently invalidates as many anti-virus programs you have installed as possible (in my case it blocked the operation of AVAST! entirely).

2.  Silently invalidates as many anti-malware programs you have installed (in my case it blocked the operation of malwarebytes anti-malware, spybot, and adaware).

3.  Redirects any and all google searches/urls to bullshit malware sites.  In particular, it will redirect searches for any programs that can get rid of it to 'fake' anti-malware sites.

As you may imagine, the combination of all the things it does makes TDSS quite difficult to get rid of, and ultimately I had to find a program that TDSS knew nothing about (SUPERAntispyware) and use that to clear it out enough so I could uninstall anti-malware and reinstall a new version that would completely get rid of TDSS.


So why tell you all this?  Mainly because I had a 'similar' but not identical issue with you where programs (in my case anti-malware and other programs marked by this little prick malware device) would auto-close, sometimes randomly.  The goal of these programs is just to annoy you, so don't discount the possibility that you've gotten something like this without a THOROUGH test (that includes registry checker, malware search, and two or more antivirus scans).  One scanner is not enough because they have a habit of always missing something.

[MrColossal]

what folder view are you using? thumbnail?

[InCreator]

List.