Error Deleting AVI Files in Windows XP

It seems like I just can’t seem to get rid of an annoying error that crops up every once in a while where I’m unable to delete AVI files through Windows XP. To be fair, I should probably elaborate and say that I’m unable to delete AVI files through Windows XP when I’m using Windows Explorer. Were I to use the command line, I’m sure that it would be just fine.

I think that I might have finally managed to lick this problem – though at this point I’m really suspecting that it has just gone into remission, so I don’t know for sure. If you’ve seen it, then you know what happens. You try and delete (or move, which involves a delete) an AVI file and you get an annoying message telling you that the file is in use. You can kill the file handle using something like Process Explorer, but it would be so much better to not have to worry about it.

As I mentioned, I’m not absolutely positive that this solution will do it, but ever since trying it, I have yet to run into the problem again, so I’m fairly confident that it solves the problem. What is even better is that it’s not difficult to do, and – at least for me – it involved no loss of functionality. It is rare that such a fix exists in the world of Windows.

Anyway – to the solution.

Simply open a command prompt and type REGSVR32 /U SHMEDIA.DLL. This unregisters the DLL that handles media previews (or so I understand). What you will apparently lose is the ability to see a thumbnail of a video – but it is so rare that this worked worth anything that it’s not really much of a loss.

If you decide that you need it, all you have to do is type in REGSVR32 SHMEDIA.DLL to re-register the DLL and you’ll get the feature back. Just realize that doing so will again try to preview the files.

In the meantime, you should no longer have to worry about the annoying messages that tell you that your file is in use. Move them, delete them, rename them, what have you.


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