This just concerns Windows XP, and only concerns users downloading large .avi files from P2P shares (Limewire, etc..) or bit torrents. If you are unfamiliar with these, they are programs used to replace napster. But have branched out into sharing more than just mp3's; like .avi's and mpg's-DVD rips of current movies, and software.
Details of the problem experienced and fix listed below.(I had to do this recently because of downloading new release DVDrips in .avi format).
INTRO:
Not all .avi files are affected by this, only ones in certain formats that your computer may not recognize (such as language format-english with chinese subs, etc). It really depends on where the DVD was ripped, and what the language format was-many movies are shown around the world on DVD with the original sound (english for american, british,and austrailian movies), it just has sub-text for the language where the DVD is sold (example china, japan, korea, germany, etc...).
PROBLEM:
When using windows XP, if we attempt to click, copy, paste, move, rename, view properties of the file, etc.... CPU utilization will max at 100%, slowing down the computer to a crawl, and possibly overheating some processors.
This happens mostly because: The DVD was ripped to .avi on a PC in a foreign country, then we downloaded it to a computer (ours in the US) and don't have the language file attributes handler in the OS (most PC's in the US are U.S/Western world format). Windows does not know how to handle the unrecognized file attributes. So, we need to disable the windows handler of these specific file attributes, but not affect the viewing of the file.
FIX:
Windows XP Explorer hangs fix:
To correct the misbehavior in Windows XP, remove the following registry key.
Start -> Run -> type in: Regedit
"HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\CLSID\{87D62D94-71B3-4b9a-9489-5FE6850DC73E}\InProcServer32"
I have tested this on 2 PC's and it works beautifully... Does not affect anything on the viewing of the .avi, it just removes the file attribute handler for .avi files only. Now we can click, copy, paste, move, rename, or view properties of the file without hanging the processor.