Reinstalling SP2 to repair Damaged DLLs
If wanting to fix the user profile instead of scrapping and starting over this is probally worth a try.
Scroll to the bottom of this post for what worked for me, keep reading if you like long-winded stories.
I was getting a similar error, not when right clicking, but searching.
Any search I attempted got the "Windows Explorer has encountered a problem and needs to close. We are sorry for the inconvenience." error myself only referencing a failure in Srchui.dll (Search User Interface Dynamic Link Library)
As most .dll failures are due to a corruption of the dll itself I set off to overwrite my current Srchui.dll with the original.
Thank you pklammer for the "Launch folder windows in a separate process" tip, it DID make my testing less painful!
This was hindered by both the fact that I wanted the SP2 version and that I couldn't search to find the file on my harddrive.
Microsoft shed some light with thier "A File That Is Required to Run Search Companion Cannot Be Found" article at
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;319949. I found this by searching Microsoft for just "Srchui.dll".
The article recommended to (re)install Srchasst.inf, to replace the missing Srchui.dll. My hopes were that it would repair my damanged one.
Doing so I was prompted for the SP2 CD, I didn't have one as I installined via Windows Update. I didn't seem to have a full unzipped directory in C:\WINDOWS\$NtServicePackUninstall$ either.
I finally decided to try to reinstall SP2. I didn't wanna wait for CD and of course having it installed already it no longer appears in Windows Update. After some searching I DL'd the "Windows XP Service Pack 2 for IT Professionals and Developers" from
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...BE-3B8E-4F30-8245-9E368D3CDB5A&displaylang=en (I search MS for "SP2 download")
Some recommendations for (re)installing SP2 this way:
Do a manual System Restore Checkpoint. Windows Update version will do one for you, this way won't.
Restart when finished. The "Restart computer now" isn't grayed out like on the WU version. I didn't delay and wouldn't recommend you doing it either.
I reinstalled it and held my breath during reboot. I got a "MSL Failed" (or something like that) error on login. I'm guessing that it was trying to migrate settings from SP1 but couldn't find any. I've rebooted once since and it's NOT reoccuring.
My profile was in tact except a few arbitrary changes. I had to redelete the WMP shortcut from my quicklaunch. I had to redelete the "Set Program Access and Defaults" shortcut from the root of the start menu. I had to reuncheck the "Display detele confirmation dialog" in Recycling Bin properties. That's all I've found so far.
I CAN SEARCH! Both local and network drive searches work like a charm.
Things I have verified so far that were maintained in my profile are:
Folder view preferences
Custom Start Menu organization
Favorites
Firewall settings
Both of my wireless NICs work.
In short I had to click ok on one error message, reconfigure 3 settings and now i'm golden. I've been up for 25 minutes since reboot, no error, hangs, crashes, other problems, and still can search.
I'll swing back by this topic if anything goes horribly wrong.
Monkey G. =)