hi. having computer issue with crashing explorer.exe caused by an flv file from youtube. I can't get into the username on command prompt as username is two words long with a space in it. How do you access it. Also anyone know why an flv file would crash explorer? Thanks

I take it you're on XP then? (Vista and 7 are a bit cleverer at interpreting spaces in paths) From the command line, you simply need to put quotes round the path if part of it contains spaces or other invalid characters, e.g.

cd "\Users\Bob\My Documents"

Or accessing via the (now well-hidden) DOS-style 8.3 name still works too - first 6 valid characters, tilde, number (usually 1, unless there's several names starting with the same 6 characters)

cd MYDOCU~1

I've had things like corrupt AVI files kill Explorer on XP in the past - when you open a folder in Explorer it will read parts of all the files of registered types to retrieve additional details like the length of songs, size of images, etc. Any 3rd-party extensions that add things to the right-click menu or show previews of images/movies could also do the same, and will likely take Explorer down with them if they fall over. Basically if a file is corrupt or a slightly different format to what the program reading it thinks it is, it can potentially cause a crash if the program doesn't (or can't) rigorously check that everything it reads is valid.

Was the video really on youtube, or one of a number of sites which look like youtube but are actually hosts of malware and trojans. If you came across the link from google it could be the latter, and explorer could be crashing because the malware/trojan is coded badly.

if you do get it going, do a full malware/trojan scan with malwarebytes or simillar and make sure you are trojan free.

R

Was the video really on youtube, or one of a number of sites which look like youtube but are actually hosts of malware and trojans. If you came across the link from google it could be the latter, and explorer could be crashing because the malware/trojan is coded badly.

if you do get it going, do a full malware/trojan scan with malwarebytes or simillar and make sure you are trojan free.

The file definitely came from youtube. I am already in c:/users and trying to get in to "mark smith" for example. I can see the folder using dir command but tried CD mark smith, CD "mark smith" etc.

I can add (now I have a proper keyboard in front of me ) that I am on Vista Home basic. I have done some internet research on these FLV media files and it appears there is some kind of microsoft clash in relation to the program associated with FLV files. I might try uninstalling quicktime as that appears to be a reason. However, tonight, I will need to access desktop and the user file to delete this FLV file, via the command prompt. I am definitely regretting copy/pasting it to the desktop now.....

Just not sure why "CD Mark Smith" command does not access Mark Smith folder when I can clearly see it using DIR when in the users folder..... It usually says something about "mark - parameters"

Just not sure why "CD Mark Smith" command does not access Mark Smith folder when I can clearly see it using DIR when in the users folder..... It usually says something about "mark - parameters"

It'll be treating the bit in quotes as one command, so it's exactly the same as running:

cd mark smith

Other thing you could try is typing:

cd ma

and then press the tab key to autocomplete...it should then match the folder name exactly.

I wasn't actually typing the " " bit - just CD Mark Smith. Never knew about the tab thing, I thought that would just literally tab the cursor Will try that tonight. Cheers

I wasn't actually typing the " " bit - just CD Mark Smith. Never knew about the tab thing, I thought that would just literally tab the cursor Will try that tonight. Cheers

Yup type cd ma and then hit the tab key

or

cd "Mark Smith"

should both work fine

cd "Mark Smith"

That was one thing I did try and it came up with an error. Will try again this evening. I could be back on this thread later on my mobile I fear.... :'(

if the disk is formatted with NTFS, and you are not using the "mark smith" user account or an account with administrator rights, you will not be able to access the folder because the permissions set on the users folder will only allow the owner and administrators access to that folder. If using another user account its going to get tricky as the easiest way to fix it is with explorer, otherwise you'll need to get to grips with the CACLS command which can break a lot of things if used incorrectly.

you can always type it out with no more than 8 characters and with a tilda and a 1

Example:

CD Mydocu~1

So

CD marksm~1

should work

Phew, thankfully the tilda thing worked as all other things I tried did not. Hitting tab merely moved fhe cursor unless I was doing something wrong. Perhaps.

Managed to delete the offending file and now off to see why the hell FLV files kills my explorer. I have uninstalled quicktime and anything else Apple related from this PC in the meantime..... Off to play!

Just leave the porn alone Jase

Rats! busted! As it happens it WAS an actual clip from youtube :p and I re-downloaded it once I had uninstalled quicktime, ensuring I saved it somewhere not on my desktop..... and now I can access it etc fine..... Well well. Clearly Apple.inc was fecking up my machine somehow, but no worries now quicktime is out the window!

VLC Player FTW!