Makes Vista x64 freeze

[Gingerbread Guy]

Hello,

I've encountered a major problem on Vista x64 SP1. When XnView is launched by an external program (e.g. Windows Explorer), the whole system freezes. Ctrl+Alt+Del doesn't do anything and the mouse doesn't move. The only way out is to press the Reset button. The problem to this problem is that it's not reproductible; sometimes I'll open a few images just fine, then one more and it locks up.

I can't even begin to explain how long I've searched for an ACDSee replacement (it's gotten lousy over the years and the old version has too many drawbacks) before I found XnView. I loved on Windows XP. What the heck am I supposed to do now, when I can't even help the author identify the problem?

Bright ideas welcome.

[ckit]

I have Vista SP1 x64 and don't have any freezes, sounds more like a bad shell extension in Windows Explorer to me.

[Gingerbread Guy]

As far as I know, I don't have any shell extensions. Where would I look to check?

[ckit]

I use ShellExView x64 by NirSoft and just check the pink highlighted entries but before deleting or disabling any of them create a restore point first.

Link: http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/shexview.html

[Gingerbread Guy]

I got ShellExView, but I didn't use it to make any modifications because all the entries it highlighted were from trusted vendors and I needed them:

• AVG8 Shell Extension Class (AVG Shell Extension)
• DesktopContext Class (NVIDIA Display Properties Extension)
• NVIDIA CPL Extension (NVIDIA Display Properties Extension)
• WinRAR (Context Menu/Drop Handler/Property Sheet/Drag & Drop Handler)

I did this instead:

1. Uninstalled XnView (it was XnView v1.96 Complete version, with setup).
2. Got XnView v1.96 Minimal version, zip.
3. Stayed far away from System integration > Associations and instead went to Control Panel > Programs > Make a file type always open a specific program, and set all the file associations there through Change Program > Browse.

No more problems so far. Hopefully my luck will hold out

Edit:
AAAAAAAARGGGGGGHHHH!!!

I was missing the 'Crop' feature, so I downloaded the Standard ZIP and unpacked it on top of the minimal version. When I tried to open a file, it froze again. I reset the computer and got rid of mpeg.dll, sqx20.dll, unacev2.dll and xjp2.dll from the Plugins folder. No more freeze (again). So the problem was probably not with the way XnView creates file associations, but one or more of the plug-ins.
On the down side, I still can't find the Crop feature.