JSI Tip 10420. You experience problems with special folders, like My Documents, and other shell failures?

You experience one or more of the following strange behaviors:

- You are unable to open special folders, like My Documents or My Pictures.

- Some 3rd party applications hang when accessing My Documents.

- Office files won't open in Microsoft Office if they are stored in My Documents.

- Entering an address into Internet Explorer’s address bar does nothing.

- The Send TO context menu has no effect.

- The plus (+) sign on a folder in Windows Explorer does nothing.

- Opening a file via an applications File / Open menu causes the application to hang.

This behavior is caused by a new VERCLSID.EXE binary, which validates shell extensions before Explorer.exe, the Windows Shell, can use them. VERCLSID.EXE is installed by the MS06-015 (908531) security update.

The following 3rd party applications cause VERCLSID.EXE to hang:

Hewlett-Packard's Share-to-Web Namespace Daemon ("%ProgramFiles%hewlett-packardhp share-to-webHpgs2wnd.exe), auto-started from the Registry Run key and the Startup menu, which ships with:

        HP PhotoSmart software         Any HP DeskJet printer that includes a card reader         HP Scanners         Some HP CD-DVD RWs         HP Cameras

Sunbelt Kerio Personal Firewall which has a feature that prompts when Explorer launches VERCLSID.EXE, but you can configure it not to prompt.

To workaround this behavior, add the HP shell extension to the VERCLSID.EXE white list:

1. Open a CMD.EXE window.

2. Type the following command and press Enter:

REG ADD "HKLMSOFTWAREMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionShell ExtensionsCached" /V "{A4DF5659-0801-4A60-9607-1C48695EFDA9} {000214E6-0000-0000-C000-000000000046} 0x401" /T REG_DWORD /F /D 1

3. Shutdown and restart your computer.

NOTE: If you find other COM controls or shell extensions that cause this behavior, you can add them to the white list.