Working with zips crashes Windows File Explorer

IT Support
Nate Work
1
min

Working with zips crashes Windows File Explorer

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Nate Work
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December 2, 2024

A client reported:

When trying to open, extract, or otherwise interact with compressed zip files, the File Explorer window crashes.

Sure enough, no matter the zip, the File Explorer would close whenever he tried to open a .zip file.

Here's what I found in Event Viewer:

Faulting application name: explorer.exe, version: 10.0.22621.3374, time stamp: 0x8e690d6e
Faulting module name: BIB.dll_unloaded, version: 1.2.1.1551, time stamp: 0x4845e497
Exception code: 0xc0000005Fault offset: 0x000000000000b0a0
Faulting process id: 0x0x13FBCFaulting application start time: 0x0x1DAD6C803FBDE5B
Faulting application path: C:\WINDOWS\explorer.exeFaulting module path: BIB.dll

It turns our that BIB.dll is from Creative Suite 4 (CS4.) I recommended uninstalling it, since it's ancient and might be causing other problems. Our client declined, so I removed these registry entries, which did the trick, while leaving CS4 installed:

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\AllFilesystemObjects\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers\{C95FFEAE-A32E-4122-A5C4-49B5BFB69795}
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\Background\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers\{C95FFEAE-A32E-4122-A5C4-49B5BFB69795}

I didn't even have to restart my client's PC; immediately after after renaming those registry entries, our client could manipulate zip files without File Explorer crashing.

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