Windows explorer.exe crashes on Windows 7 64bit systems

  • 7010695
  • 28-Aug-2012
  • 19-Jun-2013

Environment

Novell ZENworks Configuration Management 11.2

Situation

Random crashes are observed in Explorer.exe on Windows 7 64bit systems.

Error message in Windows application event log contains information like:
"...
Faulting module name: NalShell.dll
Exception code: 0xc0000005
Faulting application path: C:\Windows\explorer.exe
Faulting Module path: C:\Program Files (x86)\Novell\ZENworks\bin\NalShell.dll

..."

Resolution

This is fixed in version 11.2.3a - see KB 7011295 "ZENworks Configuration Management 11.2.3a - update information and list of fixes" which can be found at https://support.microfocus.com/kb/doc.php?id=7011295

Note that there are many possible causes for a crash - this fix is for the latest known problem

Cause

Nalshell.dll does a Windows API call to verify OS version. This call is quite randomly causing a Windows Explorer crash.