Windows Explorer crashes

[dogberry]

I have a major problem with two Win 7x64 computers (Windows (NOT IE) Explorer crashes) and on both machines a troubleshooter has told me that the likely cause is vengineie64.dll (which sounds to me like a dll that is associated with the 64-bit version of IE).

I sure could use some advice about where to go from here. I have been driven crazy by this problem for more than two weeks now. So far as I know I am not using IE64, and the Windows Explorer crashes are the very familiar click on something like 'Computer' or 'Games' or left-click on just about anything. Sometimes I get a message, sometimes not, the screen goes blank while Explorer restarts. The cure may be something as simple as uninstalling IE64 or replacing a corrupt dll, but now that I may have a handle on where the problem is coming from, I don't want to fumble the ball. Besides, others may have the same problem.

[RetiredGeek]

Dogberry,

Check this Microsoft Answers out.

[ruirib]

Are you running Comodo?

[dogberry]

This is a quick note to let you know that you are both firing on all cylinders so far. Yes to Comodo on both computers (and yes, I think it was left over from Vista or something), but unfortunately I am having a dickens of a time in curing the problem. I'm taking a break, but I hope to have matters of interest to report later.

[ruirib]

If you are going the uninstall path, you can always try something like Revo Uninstaller and see if it helps.

[dogberry]

Thank you for your help.

There is discussion of the problem on the board at Comodo, but no official uninstall that I could see that would simplify things. The easy part is that the offending dll is a part of the Comodo Verification Engine and nothing else. Find it (C:\Program Files\Comodo\Vengine\*.dll) and change the name of the file, or delete it, or delete the folder, and the problem vanishes.

Navigation in Windows without Explorer can be daunting, but a quick, free, and convenient alternative is Free Commander (which a user might like to keep for use at any time). Deleting or renaming may require an elevated Command Prompt.

The interesting thing is how I got the name of the offending file. It was literally last night that I remarked on Soluto in a post in a different thread, and that led me to revisit that application to look more closely at the crash record and analysis on these computers. Checking the latest crash gave me the same answer on both machines.

Soluto is still in beta, but this was an impressive demonstration of its value. The buzz has been its start-up time feature, but crash logging and analysis (not copied from Windows) makes it useful over time. Start-up times are a minor nuisance, but troubleshooting crashes is an expensive proposition.