hi,

almost every program crashes on open file dialg. for example MS Office on open file, crashes.

When I use Browser on upload image ,crashes browser. all programs pretty much except Adobe programs and I think they don't crash because adobe uses its own file browser - Adobe Bridge.

I have Win Vista 64, fully updated.

So there are lots of causes for this, mostly registry.
Run SFC /SCANNOW
Dl and run CCleaner
Dl and run ShellExView, disable all the non windows registry items, if you like you can go through them one by one to see if any/which ones effect you.

This has solved this for me for the majority of programs, however I can not fully fix this and am criticaly impaired in Many Many tasks and programs, having to create workarounds just to save as (copy file, rename, work from, use default save function) and completely disabling a large number of functions, notably a lot of import functions.

Originally Posted by richc46

Lets try the easy way first
Tools>internet options>advanced options>reset
for IE 8

I did that, problem persists. Thanks though.

I also ran CCleaner and Glary Utilities registry cleaners. nothing worked.

i just loaded in safe mode and problem is gone. I am typing this with my other laptop.

how do I pin-point and eliminate problem

thanks for quick replies

if I understood your comment correctly, I'll be trying cleanboot link you provided earlier.