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COM Surrogate has stopped working - Microsoft Community

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Question
Mayur shah Nashik asked on March 11, 2009

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COM Surrogate has stopped working

Hello All, Well I get really annoyed by getting this error message again and again while the thumbnails are shown. When every I browse my hard drive for any movie or video I get this error message. But this error doesn't come if i select the "Always show icons never thumbnail" from the view panel of the 'Folder and Search option'. I would like to have thumbnails as it makes me easier for me to navigate or give a walk through to my collection. Can you please suggest me any remedy for this??

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Answer
Keith- replied on March 11, 2009
Microsoft

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Hi Mayur shah Nashik, Thank you for taking the time to post. Has this ever worked for you while showing the thumbnails? Do you have any programs installed for video editing or DVD authoring like Nero?

Have you tried to update the codecs you might have installed? You can search the internet for Vista codecs package and update them. Using Third Party Software, including hardware drivers can cause serious problems that may prevent your computer from booting properly. Microsoft cannot guarantee that any problems resulting from the use of Third Party Software can be solved. Using Third Party Software is at your own risk. The first thing we should do is determine if a program and or service is causing the message. We can place Windows in a clean boot which Windows will only load what is required at boot. 1. Click the Start button on your Desktop 2. Type msconfig in the Start Search box, and then press ENTER. If you are prompted for an administrator password or for a confirmation, type the password, or click Continue. 3. On the General tab, click Selective Startup. 4. Under Selective Startup, click to clear the Load Startup Items check box. 5. Click the Services tab, click to select the Hide All Microsoft Services check box, and then click Disable All. 6. Click OK. 7. When you are prompted, click Restart. How to set your computer to boot normal: 1. Click the Start button on your Desktop 2. In the Start Search box, type msconfig, and then press ENTER. If you are prompted for an administrator password or for a confirmation, type the password, or click

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COM Surrogate has stopped working - Microsoft Community

Continue. 3. Click the General tab. 4. Click Normal Startup - load all device drivers and services, and then click OK. 5. When you are prompted, click Restart to restart the computer. Once you are in a clean boot see if you can browse with Thumbnails on without the error. If we can then we might have a program or service on startup that is causing this. So how to determine which is causing, we would need to use the same steps above but enable half the items back and test until we can reproduce the error. Basically we would be doing process of elimination.

If you still have the message you can try the following. Click the Start Orb on the Desktop Right-click Computer and select Properties Select Advanced system settings (Left side) Under Performance category select settings Select the Data Execution Prevention Tab Select Turn on DEP for all programs and services Select add Browse to C:\Windows\System32\dllhost.exe Select Open and then Ok You should now be back to the main window with COM Surrogate checked, click apply or ok to exit and see if you still get the message. Please let us know. Thanks, Keith Microsoft Answers Support Engineer Visit our Microsoft Answers Feedback Forum and let us know what you think. Reply | Reply with quote | Report abuse

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snlroa replied on April 15, 2009 In reply to Keith- post on March 11, 2009 Hello; This does not work voor 64 bits application? Can you give a suggestion how to do this? Regards, snlroa Reply | Reply with quote | Report abuse

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sanal N replied on December 23, 2009

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Hello All, Well I get really annoyed by getting this error message again and again while the thumbnails are shown. When every I browse my hard drive for any movie or video I get this error message. But this error doesn't come if i select the "Always show icons never thumbnail" from the view panel of the 'Folder and Search option'. I would like to have thumbnails as it makes me easier for me to navigate or give a walk through to my collection. Can you please suggest me any remedy for this??

Hello All, Well I get really annoyed by getting this error message again and again while the thumbnails are shown. When every I browse my hard drive for any movie or video I get this error message. But this error doesn't come if i select the "Always show icons never thumbnail" from the view panel of the 'Folder and Search option'. I would like to have thumbnails as it makes me easier for me to navigate or give a walk through to my

answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_vista-desktop/com-surrogate-has-stopped-working/71199313-99a1-43fa-abda-ab44a84bfb6e

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COM Surrogate has stopped working - Microsoft Community

collection. Can you please suggest me any remedy for this??

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bryan.mckinley replied on May 14, 2011 In reply to Keith- post on March 11, 2009

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Tried the isolation clean boot islation test on Windows 64 bit ultimate to no avail. Google searches on com surrogate errors point to a faulty dllhost.exe as the problem. I assume this is loaded in a clean boot, which would explain why I still get the error. The problem I have is more than a nuisance. I'm a researcher and I have 400 PDFs in one directory alone. I cannot delete most of these due to this error, making house cleaning impossible, short of reinstalling and then likely encountering the same problem due to the unknown culprit changing (dllhost.exe). One simple test is to use the original or clean install's dllhost.exe. I could try copy my laptop's dllhost.exe over the desktop. Oh, yes, the laptop has nearly the same config as the desktop but former does not manifest the error when deleting files of the same directory (copied as backup from the desktop). Tried turning DEP on but cannot set these attributes on 64-bit executables, which is what snlroa indicates. If the windows architecture did not couple the GUI to the kernel, I'll bet I could delete the files from console mode. Hum... I'll try that with safe boot. If this fails...do you have other suggestions short of a resintall? Not that is really annoying and wasteful of users' time. Reply | Reply with quote | Report abuse

bryan.mckinley replied on May 14, 2011 In reply to bryan.mckinley post on May 14, 2011

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Safe boot allowed me to delete the file. What a pain. If I copy the directory, the target directory inherits the same problem, but I'd like to retain a copy--naturally. Another pain. Suggestions? Reply | Reply with quote | Report abuse

X_Wisdom_X replied on March 17, 2012

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I've had this problem before in prior installs of Windows Vista and Windows 7. It is here again with me but I have this problem of COM Surrogate crashing even when I have no Nero or other authoring software installed. I do have ffdshow tryouts installed but that is meant to be better than the old discontinued one. I did completely disable DEP - Data Execution Prevention for my W7. But again I heave read this would only fix the problem. Every other W7 install I have DEP disabled on has never caused this before so it can't be that, unlikely. I need DEP disabled because it prevents most old programs and games from working. Software that works fine and was built for Windows XP now works great in Windows 7 when this is disabled, not all old software that is incompatible but most I use at least. If I find a solution that works for my situation I will post back. I would suggest Microsoft find a way to fix this by now, but I imagine it will still manifest in Windows 8 given time. I still do not want to enabled DEP again, why would I! It always was a pain, ever since it was first introduced, like most other security measures in windows. Reply | Reply with quote | Report abuse

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Rodri Hermida replied on April 16, 2012

COM Surrogate has stopped working - Microsoft Community

I have the same problem when i open pictures with Windows Photo Viewer. Help Me Keith!

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Rodrigo Hermida

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Dena B replied on April 18, 2012

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In reply to Rodri Hermida post on April 16, 2012 Hi Rodri Hermida, Have you completed the steps Keith outlined?
Dena

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MD. NURHOSSEN replied on July 4, 2012 In reply to Keith- post on March 11, 2009 Hi, i have successfully solved this...............................

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Regards, Md. Nur Hossen

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KristianE. replied on August 25, 2012 In reply to Rodri Hermida post on April 16, 2012

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I also have this problem when opening pictures in Windows Photo Viewer on my new computer. No external software installed yet, so I can't understand this. Tried this part: If you still have the message you can try the following. "Click the Start Orb on the Desktop Right-click Computer and select Properties Select Advanced system settings (Left side) Under Performance category select settings Select the Data Execution Prevention Tab Select Turn on DEP for all programs and services Select add Browse to C:\Windows\System32\dllhost.exe Select Open and then Ok" but it says that this can't be done with a 64 bit os. What to do?:( Kind regards Kristian Eliassen

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