Ranting to /dev/null

Windows Explorer DEP error

Just fixed a completely random error I was experiencing in Windows. In preparation for heading home for Thanksgiving, I copied a few video files from a show I've been watching from my desktop to \My Documents on my laptop. The next time I booted the computer, Windows went straight to a Data Execution Prevention error and shut down Explorer. This is not ideal. I hadn't connected copying the files with the new error, and just assumed that I'd either picked up a virus from somewhere or that Windows had spontaneously screwed itself, as happens from time to time.

I did a bit of searching, and most people seemed to suggest that the solution was to disable DEP for Explorer. While I'm sure that would work, I wasn't satisfied with that, as the concept of DEP strikes me as sound. I started with a system restore, which one would think would fix any actual errors, but the thing kept crashing on me. I did a bit more searching, and saw one or two people mention thumbnail files, but without much real direction. So I moved the files from \My Documents to a different directory, and bingo, the error went away.

Conclusion: try to avoid putting files that generate a thumbnail file in the root directory of My Documents.

This, I contend, is a completely silly way of running an OS.