What's up with windows windows?

December 15, 2010 4:12 PM

What is going on with my XP file windows?

Everytime we use a program, and try to load or save a file we are presented with this mess. What is going on?

posted by Frasermoo to Computers & Internet (5 answers total)

Looks like low memory or low resource pool to me. I assume "we" means users of one particular computer. When was the last time it was rebooted? There are diagnostics to see which program went out of control hogging resources or memory. Or it could be a collection of programs. I know it sounds lame to say "reboot" but this is a prime case where it might just be the best thing to do.
posted by markhu at 4:18 PM on December 15, 2010

It comes up specifically during the save/save as dialog? That will likely be a corrupted dll file. Or a virus/malware screwing things up.

Try this:
http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/windows/xp/all/proddocs/en-us/system_file_checker.mspx?mfr=true

Note: I have never used it. But it will probably fix the problem. Maybe try rebooting into safe mode and running chkdsk first would be advisable, too.
posted by gjc at 4:47 PM on December 15, 2010

If those things don't help, try this.

In general, if you have an opportunity to upgrade to Windows 7, take it.
posted by East Manitoba Regional Junior Kabaddi Champion '94 at 4:48 PM on December 15, 2010

If you hit CRT-ALT-DEL does it bring up the task manager? If it does not, you've more than likely been hit by a variation of the Sality trojan. It will suck up memory as it mass deletes files. Run the free version of MBAM if you think that could be a possibility.
posted by Gerard Sorme at 4:55 PM on December 15, 2010

It could be some kind of save integration gone wrong. Certain applications can integra...er I mean *hijack* save and load dialogs. If it's malware or a virus, malwarebytes, security essentials, avg, or avast could help. If its just a poorly designed app that's gone wrong, take the repair route East Manitoba... suggested.

Try HijackThis and clear out anything you don't think you'll need (or post the results here and we could help identify anything that doesn't look right)

Aside from that, you may also want to try doing a registry clean to see if the issue is there.
posted by samsara at 6:13 AM on December 16, 2010