Eraser Causes freeze of XP when right clicking

M

MarkReaves

New Member
Basically it seems this topic is what I'm having issues with but it is locked so I'm posting here.

After I installed 5.8.7 on a fresh Windows XP install with SP3 and all current updates as of this post.. if I right click on any file/folder/shortcut/etc the entire Windows will freeze.

I have verified it is indeed Eraser and uninstalling Eraser fixed the problem.

However, I want to have Eraser as it is a very useful program.

Moderator edit: the link to the solution is at http://bbs.heidi.ie/viewtopic.php?p=15484#p15484
 
5.8.7 is released, have you tried uninstall 5.8.6a and reinstalling? I can't reproduce the crash/hang/freeze in a XP SP3 clean install.

Joel
 
I'm sorry, I was mistaken about one thing in my first post.

I was using version 5.8.7 when this issue happened. I had meant to say that 5.86a download link leads to an empty page.

Some more notes... Eraser worked on same computer with Windows XP SP3 (I had to reinstall Windows yesterday and while doing so had to install eraser).
Does eraser have any dependencies that may or may not be missing that can be checked?
 
Are you using the 64bit version?

Can you try turning off 'entropy polling' in eraser options

Garrett
 
admin said:
Are you using the 64bit version?

Can you try turning off 'entropy polling' in eraser options

Garrett
Click to expand...
I'm on XP 32bit, entropy polling was never enabled on any of my installs of eraser.

It still freezes the whole computer (just tried installing again). This time to verify it was 100% the context menu eraser puts in, I disabled the content menu addition from within eraser and XP doesn't freeze.
 
Not sure if it would matter but there is one thing different between previous XP installs and this one...

The drive letter for the windows drive is H:\ instead of the usual C:\
And no I can't change it to C:\
 
I have encountered the mentioned issue regarding Eraser 5.8.7 as well. I have been using Eraser 5.8.6a for a year and no such problems had ever occurred. In my case, it is Vista SP2 32bit which freezes. Explorer.exe crashes, to be exact. It is a random thing, though. Happens from time to time. I have not noticed any pattern which could help pinpoint the problem.

If this helps anything, my context menu contains WinRar's and Norton Security's shells, besides Eraser's.
 
Does the hang always occur when right-clicking anything or is it only the first time you right click on something in Explorer shortcut, file, drive, Computer, Network etc)

The next time this occurs, if you are using Vista, go to the task manager, go to the Processes tab, find Explorer.exe, right click it and run a Create Dump File. That will store the lock up information of Explorer.exe in a file, zip up the file and you can send it to me, I'll try to examine the hang from where I am. Otherwise, I've ran through the changes to the shell extension but can't find anything that could have broke the extension...

Joel
 
I'm on XP so that creating of dump file wont work for me.

However, I did find out something, not sure how useful this information would be.

I installed eraser again. When I right click it freezes explorer. This time I had the task manager opened, I killed explorer and then "new task" then explorer.exe

After the desktop came back up, right clicking on files/folders and such does NOT freeze explorer.

To make sure this was repeatable, I restarted the computer. Once back on the desktop, right clicking on any file/folder and such froze explorer again but killing and starting explorer again makes it stop freezing.
 
I have the same behaviour when debugging under Vista, but even the debugger hangs after Explorer hangs.. this will be tough.

Joel
 
Not sure if it's related but I know some recent updates (installed before I installed eraser on this fresh install) have messed up my shutdown process. This computer used to shut down automatically after clicking "shut down" but now I have to wait till it says that it's safe to shut down and then press and hold the power button till it turns off.

It could be possible the recent updates changed something and broke it.
 
i am having the same exact problem on both my desktop and laptop. both running xp service pack 3 32-bit. when i uninstalled 5.8.7 the problem went away.
is there a way to download an older version?
 
I've released 5.8.8-beta1 which has the runtime libraries specifically selected to be compatible to those installed. I think that may solve the problem (I've just installed it in a fresh install of XP and it works fine.) Download here.

Joel
 
I have been having the shell freeze problem with Eraser in Windows Explorer XP (SP3). I uninstalled the version 5.8.7 and installed 5.8.8-beta1, to no avail. It still freezes explorer when I right-click the first time. After I kill explorer process and restart it, it stops freezing, as before. I have to use ShellExView to disable Eraser shell. It's a shame, because one of the most useful resources of eraser is the shell. I hope it gets fixed.
 
vidmidia said:
I have been having the shell freeze problem with Eraser in Windows Explorer XP (SP3). I uninstalled the version 5.8.7 and installed 5.8.8-beta1, to no avail. It still freezes explorer when I right-click the first time. After I kill explorer process and restart it, it stops freezing, as before. I have to use ShellExView to disable Eraser shell. It's a shame, because one of the most useful resources of eraser is the shell. I hope it gets fixed.
Click to expand...
I'm still having issues also.

XP sp3 with all current updates.

It seems this may be an issue with some update or change in XP. I didn't have any issues with eraser on XP a couple months ago.
 
First Thanks for this great secure file Eraser. I hope you can solve this issue soon.
I am running
  • Windows XP sp3
  • Dot.Net 2.0
  • Eraser 5.8.8-beta1
I have found an Error report ticket for this problem:
#222 (Right Clicking on any object within windows 7 explorer causes explorer to crash) – Eraser
Ticket #222 (new defect)
Code: 
Right Clicking on any object within windows 7 explorer causes explorer to crash
Reported by: 	Tuwase 		
Priority: 	major 	
Component: 	erasext.dll
Keywords: 		Right Clicking, Explorer, freeze, crash, shell, shell extension, 
Owned by: 
Milestone: 	Eraser 6.0
Core 	Version: 	6.0.5.1114
Cc: 	tuwase@…

Description 
--- ---- --- ---- --- ---- --- ---- 
Right Clicking on any object within windows explorer causes explorer to crash

I have found a simple way to disable the shell handler:
Eraser Shell Extension 5.8.8-beta1 C:\WINDOWS\System32\erasext.dll
registry Class ID {8BE13461-936F-11D1-A87D-444553540000}
I found help here: Right-click is slow or weird behavior caused by context menu handlers
and here:
ShellExView - Shell Extension Manager For Windows
The program let me disable the shell extensions of non Microsoft programs so I could isolate the cause of my frustration.
 

Attachments

I've recently had the same problem. I had Eraser 5.8.7 installed and after the latest Microsoft windows updates (I'm using XP Pro SP3), whenever I right click on any desktop icon the computer completely freezes and I have to do a hardware reset! I uninstalled Eraser and the problem went away. This is a pretty big bug guys! I hope you're working on a fix as it makes eraser unusable.

It definitely seems to be a conflict with whatever updates Microsoft did in the last couple of weeks (or maybe even week) as I am regularly right clicking on desktop icons so I would have noticed it earlier if it wasn't that.
 
I've noticed that most programs that install things in the right click menu cause explorer freezes in XP sp3 with all current updates.

It seems whatever Microsoft did, it fudged more than just eraser.

Right now the only way I can keep explorer from freezing on right click is to not have ANY programs have anything in the right click menu.

So, it may be a bug with a Microsoft update. They may have changed the way something works in XP without informing the public.

Could be their way of getting people to stop using XP but could also be accidental, who knows. Either way I can't use Eraser which sucks hard as I love Eraser and miss it greatly.
 
I struggled with this same issue after installing Eraser for several weeks before I discovered what I believe is the cause of this problem.
It seems that the Microsoft Visual C++ 2008 Redistributable - X86 9.0.30729.17 and the Security Update for it - Microsoft Visual C++ 2008 ATL Redistributable Package (KB973924) conflict with all versions of Eraser. I've tried installing versions 5.8.6a, 5.8.7 and 5.8.8 Beta on an XP SP3 system and they are all affected by these updates.
As most all users are likely aware, Microsoft Visual C++ 2005 Redistributable - X86 8.0.50727.4053 and Microsoft Security Update for it, Visual C++ 2005 ATL (KB973923) are included with the initial installation of Eraser.
Shortly after installing Eraser, Microsoft Automatic Update installs Visual C++ 2008 and the Security update, referenced above for it and that's when the problem begins.
When I uninstall these updates, Eraser returns to operating normally, no longer freezing the system when right clicking in any Explorer right click menu, until Microsoft Automatic Update once again re-installs the updates.
I have no idea what can be done to resolve this issue, but I'm convinced that the Visual C++ 2008 updates are, at least part of, if not the primary cause.
I trust that the forgoing information may be helpful towards finally finding a fix to what I believe is one of the finest file shredding utilities out there.

Good Luck,
TVS
 
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