Open Video File Crash

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by Doitsu

I wasn't able to add the attached HTML file with Mend on Open disabled, but I had no problems adding it with Mend on Open enabled. Also right-clicking other files didn't cause a crash.

Have you tried to delete sigil.ini? This'll often fix some weird problems.
(Make sure to create a backup copy first, just in case you use custom settings.)

If deleting sigil.ini doesn't make a difference, maybe DiapDealer or KevinH can tell you how to locate the Qt/Sigil crash log, which might provide additional information.

Mend on Open is set - this was a new 'book' though, so there was nothing to 'Mend', tried unsetting it - same result

Renamed %userprofile\AppData\Local\sigil-ebook\sigil\sigil.ini to ...\sigil.ini.save same result

Tried similar action in several other programs. some of them ancient - right click from open file dialogue works fine - I do have a busy right click menu, I use it a lot - most often via the menu key.

BR

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by KevinH

Yes and has also been associated with Dell and other mfg shell extensions. What pc mfg are you using?

This one is BetterRed bullt. The Alienware I bought a few weeks ago was the first brand computer I've bought for myself (bought many thousands of PCs for former employers - Dell, HP, IBM, Compaq etc etc - also IBM mainframes, HP, Sun, DEC mini's etc)

I'll install sigil on the Alienware box (may have already done it) and see if it happens there - its brand new and hardly used, but most of the software I've put on it is the same as this machine, its for a colleague to use in next few months, she starts on Monday.

Disabling shell extensions, is not a solution for me as there are none I would forego for the sake of a Sigil bug. I don't have anything on my computers that I don't use. First thing I did to the Alienware box was remove the Dell bloat and install retail Windows.

I'll implement a procedural solution - preselect the files and drop links to them on the desktop and import them from there. It works fine. Can files be dragged and dropped into there respective folders - that would probably suit my colleague better.

@DiapDealer - my reaction was to what I perceived to be a somewhat dismissive response -- 'well, don't use right click then' -- without offering a workaround. Which I have now addressed - preselect the files before importing into Sigil.

BR

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by BetterRed

Disabling shell extensions, is not a solution for me as there are none I would forego for the sake of a Sigil bug.

Not even temporarily to help us identify which one may be causing problems? We can't investigate crashes we can't reproduce.

[KevinH]

And according to Qt, if this is a shell extension issue, this in not a Sigil bug. It is a bug with the author of the shell extensions who are not properly namespace protecting its use of Qt.

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

Not even temporarily to help us identify which one may be causing problems? We can't investigate crashes we can't reproduce.

Mate, I'm really busy for a couple of months because of our elections (supposedly July 2) -- unless we have another coup and the Mad Monk comes back and decides to wait a while longer

If I need a distraction I might have a play around - but I promise to give it more time once the dust settles.

What I will be doing - 'cos its relatively easy - is uninstalling Sigil, removing any lingering entries in the registry, delete the settings, and reinstall.

Disabling shell extensions is more work - I have a process for doing it, its tedious but I know it works; sometimes it's not one shellex thats the problem it's a combination. It might also be one of the always running programs - I have plenty of them too.

In the meantime, I have an acceptable workaround, providing I stay away from the menu key, which is hard because its so conveniently close to down arrow

'Twould be nice if Sigil had an autosave feature that persisted, like Word or Notepad++.

BR

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by KevinH

And according to Qt, if this is a shell extension issue, this in not a Sigil bug. It is a bug with the author of the shell extensions who are not properly namespace protecting its use of Qt.

Kevin - does Qt publish a list of shell extensions known to be problematic.

I can't think of any that I haven't been using for a few years, of course they may get updated with new releases.

FWIW I can use calibre's Add Books open file dialogues OK, right click works fine in the file list - including on MP3s, AVI's, MPG's etc, I can play them via the Open With list or open with Handbrake etc etc. CALIBRE_NO_NATIVE_FILEDIALOGS is not set

BR

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by BetterRed

FWIW I can use calibre's Add Books open file dialogues OK, right click works fine in the file list - including on MP3s, AVI's, MPG's etc, I can play them via the Open With list or open with Handbrake etc etc. CALIBRE_NO_NATIVE_FILEDIALOGS is not set

It could be as simple as compilers/runtimes. calibre uses VS2005, I believe (msvcr90.dll), for everything whereas Sigil uses VS2013. Any potential dll mixing (Qt or otherwise) could be taking place between compatible versions. Or the problem may just not manifest when compiling with VS2005.

[KevinH]

Here is the related bug report where they tracked it down to both Dell added and one other shell extension in case anything here helps:

https://bugreports.qt.io/browse/QTBUG-41416

[BetterRed]

@DiapDealer - FWIW the msvcr90.dll in my calibre install reports VS 2008



@KevinH - I don't have any DELL software on this computer, nor anything called QCA.

As I read that Qt thread the issue was a conflict between two Qt based products. The following applications have files that match Qt*.* on this system

Program Files (64 bit)

Sigil
Calibre

Program Files (X86) (32 bit)

SQLiteBrowser
MalwareBytes

Malwarebytes puts an entry into the context menu, I found the setting to get rid of it - same result. Its an antimalware product, I run the Pro version alongside Defender. I also tried shutting it down - same result

SQLiteBrowser isn't running and doesn't put itself into the context menu, I put it into the Open With list for .db and .sqlite.

BR

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by BetterRed

@DiapDealer - FWIW the msvcr90.dll in my calibre install reports VS 2008

That's entirely possible. I admit I'm terrible at trying to do the VC runtime version to Visual Studio version to MSVC compiler version math in my head.

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

... math in my head.

I never rely on my head, its been bashed into too many brick walls

Gunna try Safe Mode.

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by BetterRed

Gunna try Safe Mode.

No go - this is what was running



And this something like normal



Apart from doing a pristine install I'm out of ideas, I'll try to do that later today

BR

[KevinH]

It is just not Dell software. As the bug report explains, it seems to be an issue with 3rd party shell extensions:

From that post:

In my case, I can fix it by disabling TortoiseSVN extension in HKLM\Software\Classes\Directory\Background\ShellEx \ContextMenuHandlers.

I traced our problem to the Dell Backup and Recovery software. This installs some shell extensions. Disabling the icon overlay extensions (using autoruns from sysinternals) makes every thing work fine. So it seems likely the same problem that is fixed by disabling the Tortoise SVN extensions.

So I would check shell extensions especially any related to icons like those used in native file dialogs, or things related to context menu handling.

KevinH

[kovidgoyal]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

Any merit to subclassing QFileDialog to avoid the native filopen dialog? Or would the arbitrary extension code still fire?

Yeah you can use the Qt file dialog instead, as far as I know, that does not load shell extensions. However, it is functionally much more limited than the native file dialog. calibre has an environment variable that you can set to disable use of native file dialogs.

It is on my todo list to someday create a standalone windows executable that does not have any dll dependencies (apart from standard windows ones) that communicates over stdin/stdout and can run windows file dialogs -- that's pretty much the only way I can see to robustly workaround this problem.

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by KevinH

It is just not Dell software. As the bug report explains, it seems to be an issue with 3rd party shell extensions:

From that post:


So I would check shell extensions especially any related to icons like those used in native file dialogs, or things related to context menu handling.

KevinH

I missed the older posts spoiler - Qt is not a forum I frequent.

Would have thought my test in minimal safe mode eliminates 3rd party shell extensions, I'll check again.

BR