The fix for Windows XP not letting you delete .avi

BonyTony

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Joined
23 Jan 2002
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I've seen this coming up more and more all over the place so I figured I'd stick it here.

Avi files (divx) can be trouble in xp. there is a fix to let xp behave much better so it's possible to move or delete large avi files. The obnoxious bug in XP that causes Explorer to read the entire contents of broken AVI files before allowing any access to them is caused by bad behavior of shmedia.dll.

To correct this misbehavior in Windows XP, remove the following
registry key.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREClassesCLSID{87D62D94-71B3-4b9a-9489-5FE6850DC73E}InProcServer32

This will prevent Explorer from loading shmedia.dll in response to file property queries on these files.

Just an extra note, if you do a "search" for this key it will not be found, look for it manually it is very easy to find. As always newbie or not, if you FUBAR your registry its your own fault. This fix does work, I use it and have applied it to many XP machines. Now go ahead and fix this royal pain in the ass!

Courtesy Of Rig @vcdhelp.com
 
There is another, simpler method I've heard of (but not tried since I've never had the problem myself).

Just open NOTEPAD and then click on "OPEN". Navigate to the file in the little Notepad "explorer" window and right click on the .avi file and delete it. Supposedly that's will do it.
 
Hmmmm interesting allan. Must jot that down & give it a go when it's needed. :D
 
Will try that also as i have had avi files that refused to go...they did in the end after a little persuasion:)
 
The tip I suggested is for .avi's. I'm not suggesting it will work with other "undeletable" files.
 
Good Timing...

Good timing on this thread showing up here. I had a 3 hour high quality(wich means really big) avi I wanted to delete, but it just wouldn't go. Infact I was going to post about finding a way to do it, but you guys saved me the trouble.

Take Care, and Thank You,
Mike
 
There is a program called Gipo MoveOnBoot which does the same thing... deletes the file or moves it/renames it when you restart your computer, but if you can do it without all the hassle why not?
 

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