XP SP2, DEP, Video, Thumbnaills, Explorer Crashes, Help!

[zx2012]

On several PCs now whenever anyone goes to a folder with video files in and viewed with thumbnails Windows XP's Explorer crashes with a Data Execution Prevention error message and Explorer promptly closes down.

 

Our video is in either AVI, MPEG2 or MPEG4. We do use VideoLan's VLC to view MPEG files. Some staff have tried to install YouTube downloading software which I've now removed.

 

Across the internet the solution seems to be to switch off DEP. I'd rather find the cause though. Is it best just to re-install Windows XP?

 

Any ideas?

[SYNACK]

Bad video codecs are your problem, the issue is that explorer uses the codecs to create the preview images for thumbnails, if there is a dodgey codec on there that is not programed properly to handle this then it can bomb explorer. This is quite common with some of the codec packs.

 

How to Remove or Uninstall Audio & Video Codecs in Windows XP - Digital Inspiration

Codecs.com :: Guides : Adding and Removing Default Codecs (and MCI) in Windows 95, 98 and Me

How do you uninstall corrupt codecs in windows XP? - Video - Windows-XP

 

Basicly waste the non-standard ones and it should go back to behaving normally.

[chazzy2501]

I'd disable thumbnails in Group Policy, this will also stop the network getting bogged down.