Whenever I use the open/save dialog, the application freezes and I have to terminate it

Anonymous
2014-12-13T03:13:22+00:00

I've researched this for a month before posting this. I have tried all solutions and I'm still having this problem.

Half the time when I do something with an application that brings up the Explorer dialog such as Open, Save, Save As etc. the application freezes and I have no choice but to terminate it. This happened most frequently with a video editor I used, sometimes after spending an hour editing the video all my progress is lost because I had to terminate the frozen app. This happens with Firefox, this happens with just about every app that summons the Open/Save Explorer dialog.

So far I have tried:

Using a different/default theme since I use a custom one. This appeared to solve the problem for the first few minutes as my video editor stopped freezing when clicking Open or Save video file. But then it froze on the 5th instance or so.

Deleting the ComDlg32 registry key. Sometimes this helps temporarily, sometimes it doesn't. Clearly useless.

Verifying my comdlg32.dll was not corrupt (sfc /scannow). It wasn't corrupt.

Unchecking "Launch folder windows in a separate process" in Folder Options in the Control Panel. This helped the most. Now the explorer dialog freezes only 10% of the time instead of 50%. But obviously the problem still persists so my question is WHY?

I've run into numerous problems as I upgraded to Windows 7 from XP. Not to say I never had issues on XP but at least basic things like this functioned. Basic usability is a frequent problem now since I upgraded with all kinds of random instances of design backwardsness as if I've downgraded.

Windows for home | Previous Windows versions | Files, folders, and storage

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  1. Anonymous
    2014-12-19T03:47:29+00:00

    Hi,

    Thank you for your reply.

    In order to assist you further please provide the make and model of the computer:

    Note: Information needed are:

    If system built by OEM just provide the manufacturer name & model Number, if you have made any changes to the hardware, include that too.

    If you have built the computer, provide computer specification like the Motherboard model number, Graphic card use and basic computer information.

    Get back to us with these information and we will be happy to assist you

    Thank you.

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  2. Anonymous
    2014-12-20T00:20:37+00:00

    Motherboard: ASUS-P7H55-M-PRO

    Graphics card: NVIDIA GeForce 9500 GT

    CPU: Quadcore i7

    Storage: 256GB Samsung SSD

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  3. Anonymous
    2014-12-20T09:23:40+00:00

    Hi,

    Thank you for your detailed response.

    If a program on your computer stops responding. You can end the program yourself by using Task Manager.

    If a program on your computer stops responding, Windows will try to find the problem and fix it automatically. If you don't want to wait, you can end the program yourself by using Task Manager.

    Step1: How to run a new task explorer.exe.

    1. Open Task Manager by right-clicking the taskbar, and then clicking start task manager.
    2. Click the processes tab and try locating Windows Explorer.
    3. Right click on Windows Explorer and select end task.
    4. Click on file and select run new task.
    5. Type explorer.exe then click on ok.

    Step2. Update your video drivers.

    To keep your computer running smooth, it need drivers. Drivers have to be kept up to date.

    1. Right click on 'Computer'. Go to properties.
    2. In the systems window on the left hand side click on 'Device Manger'.
    3. Select the NVIDIA GeForce 9500 GT and right click it then click "update Driver Software".
    4. When the 'update Driver Software' window pops up, click on the "Search Automatically for updated driver software."
    5. Click "Close".

    6. If you can’t find a driver that way. You should look on the manufacturer's website.

    If the issue persist then I suggest you to create a new user account and check. Please find the Microsoft article below to create a new user account in Windows 7.

    http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/create-user-account#create-user-account=windows-7

    Let us know the status of the issue.

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  4. Anonymous
    2014-12-20T19:42:34+00:00

    I already know how to terminate the frozen program, notice the title of my post?

    What I'm hoping is to make it not freeze in the first place so I don't have to terminate it.

    My video card driver is already up to date.

    I'll try doing things under a different user.

    EDIT: The issue doesn't seem to happen under a different user, but it's too early to tell. New user uses the default aero theme. Switching to a default theme on my problematic user account initially seems to alleviate the problem but eventually returns. But I'm leaning to the notion that this doesn't happen on another user account. What now?

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  5. Anonymous
    2014-12-23T04:36:57+00:00

    Hi,

    I am sorry for the delayed response.

    As the issue doesn't persists in different user account, lets try restoring Windows image by using DISM command.

    Please follow the method below.

    Method 1: Run the DISM tool 

    1. Click on start and type CMD.
    2. Right-click command prompt, and then tap or click run as administrator. 
    3. In the administrator command prompt window, enter the following commands. Press the Enter key after each command:

    DISM.exe /Online /Cleanup-image /Scanhealth

    DISM.exe /Online /Cleanup-image /Restorehealth

    1. To close the administrator command prompt window, type exit, and then press enter. 

    Let us know the status of the issue.

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