About a month ago Freecommander started freezing up at seemingly random times. It just stops responding and sometimes comes back after 2 to 10 minutes but it is easier to just kill it and start again.
It took a long time but I found out what causes the freeze: hovering the mouse over files with a .pdf extension. Normally when I hover over a file, Freecommander displays a little window with file properties of the file. If I hover over a .pdf file though, the cursor quickly flashes the hourglass symbol twice and then Freecommander freezes.
This problem is not entirely Freecommander's fault because Windows Explorer also suffers from it, although it seems to have a workaround. Explorer likes to show a file properties window like Freecommander and it also flashes the hourglass twice when hovering over a .pdf but it only freezes for about 1 second. It then works ok but stops displaying file properties for any file. It quietly goes back to normal exactly 1 minute later, until it happens again.
This bug only happens on two computers at my work, a laptop and a workstation. Both computers are running XP with weekly updates, McAfee Antivirus, and Foxit Reader for viewing PDFs. I suspect McAfee (or Microsoft) is interfering with viewing file properties because it is suspicious of re-directed PDFs. Other computers at work that do not have Foxit work OK and computers I have at home with Foxit but no McAfee or weekly Microsoft updates also work OK.
I was running an older version of Freecommander (2006.06b) when the bug appeared. I upgraded to the latest 2009.02b and the bug did not go away.
Program randomly freezes
Re: Program randomly freezes
Could you maybe check, if the FreeCommander XE has the same problem?
Re: Program randomly freezes
I installed Freecommander XE on one of the problem computers and the bug is fixed! No more freezing when hovering over .pdf files. Of course, the only reason it is fixed is because viewing file properties is off by default in XE. I noticed that I can turn it on and off now by clicking View/Show/Show File Tooltips. Turning this feature on brings the bug back just like before.
For myself, XE fixes the problem completely but I imagine other people will experience the freezing and never be able to figure it out.
Before the problem was fixed, I tried monitoring processes just when the freeze happens. First, verclsid.exe runs, then acrord32.exe runs, then wmiprvse.exe runs. All this happens very quickly and then, in a few minutes, some internet accesses happen that I think are associated with the freeze.
Here is a wild guess as to what is going on: First, my computer must be configured wrong because I thought I completely disabled Acrobat Reader. Second, once it is running, Acrobat decides it is a good time to check for updates on the internet. I long ago banned Acrobat from accessing the internet so it just freezes everything until it times out.
Here is some strong evidence that Acrobat is causing the problem:
http://forums.adobe.com/thread/784946
For myself, XE fixes the problem completely but I imagine other people will experience the freezing and never be able to figure it out.
Before the problem was fixed, I tried monitoring processes just when the freeze happens. First, verclsid.exe runs, then acrord32.exe runs, then wmiprvse.exe runs. All this happens very quickly and then, in a few minutes, some internet accesses happen that I think are associated with the freeze.
Here is a wild guess as to what is going on: First, my computer must be configured wrong because I thought I completely disabled Acrobat Reader. Second, once it is running, Acrobat decides it is a good time to check for updates on the internet. I long ago banned Acrobat from accessing the internet so it just freezes everything until it times out.
Here is some strong evidence that Acrobat is causing the problem:
http://forums.adobe.com/thread/784946
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