1.11.6: libJPEGXL.dll messes up taskbar context menu + jumpStart lists

[golemus]

Hi. I am not sure what is cause of this issue but i think it started after installing 1.11.6. Cause could be XNMP or XN Shell extension or both.

libJPEGXL.dll appears to crash explorer and make various hard to trace issues.

E.g. when I started Windows Remote Desktop and chose my computer2 from recent or pinned items in jump start list the computer crashed. Of course i could not have believed that XNMP could cause this issue and started tracing causes from elsewhere for couple of hours until AI told me to look at event log - application. There I saw multiple crashes of explorer.exe complaining about libJPEGXL.dll which were consistent with timing when I try to start RDP.

I had XNView Shell extension installed (don't remember exact version but I think it was from end of 2024). I suspect that the shell extension or its interaction with XNMP 1.11.6 and its libJPEGXL.dll caused the crashes.

I solved the issue by uninstalling XNView shell extension as I really don't use it anymore. For now things appear to be OK. Nevertheless for those who needs the extension it might be worth to try to fix it.



I had tens of these in my Event Viewer - logs - Application:



The description for Event ID ( 1000 ) in Source ( Application Error ) could not be found.
Either the component that raises this event is not installed on the computer or the installation is corrupted.You can install or repair the component or try to change Description Server.

The following information was included with the event:
Explorer.EXE
10.0.26100.8521
d8d8c4fd
libJPEGXL.dll
0.0.0.0
6a9426ff
c00000fd
0000000000266357
0x3c68
0x1dd3f080ee22a72
C:\WINDOWS\Explorer.EXE
C:\Program Files\XnViewMP\Plugins\libJPEGXL.dll
672bbbad-3599-42c2-9829-7662eb141e32



Here is what Claude AI answered me:


Excellent find — that's the actual root cause, and it explains everything perfectly. Let me break down what that crash report means:

Explorer.EXE crashed
Faulting module: libJPEGXL.dll
Location: C:\Program Files\XnViewMP\Plugins\libJPEGXL.dll
Exception code: c00000fd → STATUS_STACK_OVERFLOW

This confirms it. c00000fd is a stack overflow inside a shell extension DLL that XnViewMP installs into Explorer's process (a thumbnail/preview handler for JPEG XL images). Explorer loads third-party shell extensions like this into its own process for things like generating thumbnails, icon previews, and file property lookups. When Explorer tries to enumerate or render anything that touches this extension — which can be triggered indirectly during jump list population, not just when you literally open an image — the buggy codec overflows the stack and takes the entire Explorer process down with it. That's why:

The jump list item briefly shows "unavailable" (Explorer's shell query for that entry is failing/timing out as the crash unfolds)
The taskbar disappears and comes back (classic Explorer crash-restart)
Browser "New window" tasks were also intermittently missing (any jump list rendering in that same crashed/restarting Explorer instance loses partially-built menu content)

This lines up with your XnViewMP update timing too — a new version very likely added or updated JPEG XL support via that plugin, and it's not stable.

Fix — disable XnViewMP's shell integration

Open XnViewMP → Tools/Options → Preferences → look for a section like "Explorer", "Shell integration", or "Thumbnails" and disable Explorer thumbnail/shell extension support. Some versions expose this during install (an option like "Explorer extension" you can uncheck and reinstall without).
If XnViewMP doesn't expose a clean toggle, use ShellExView (NirSoft, free) to find the specific XnView/libJPEGXL shell extension entry and disable it directly — this is the more reliable route since it lets you confirm exactly which extension is registered and turn off only that one.
Alternatively/additionally: check if XnViewMP has a newer build than the one you installed — if this is a known regression, a patch release may already fix libJPEGXL.dll directly.
After disabling, restart Explorer (or reboot) and retest the RDP jump list click.

[xnview]

please download again the package, there was an issue with libjpegxl