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Clicking AVI Files on explorer causing 100% CPU Usage

Published in Windows XP Performance Tweaks by TweakXP Member with 36,789 views and 1 comment
Well windows seem to have a REALLY big problem when it comes to reading AVI files. It seems that when you click on an AVI file in explorer, it'll try to read the entire AVI file to determine the width,height, etc. of the AVI file (this is displayed in the Properties window). Now the problem with Windows is that if you have a broken/not fully downloaded AVI file that doesnt contain this info, Windows will scan the entire AVI file trying to figure out all these properties which in the process will probably cause 100% CPU usage and heavy memory usage.

To solve this problem all you have to do is the following:

1. Open up regedit
2. Goto HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\SystemFileAssociations\.avi\shellex\PropertyHandler
3. Delete the "Default" value which should be "{87D62D94-71B3-4b9a-9489-5FE6850DC73E}"

Voila! Please not that this will no longer provide you with the windows properties displaying the AVI file information such as width, height, bitrate etc. But its a small price to pay for saving you resources.

NOTE: Please use caution when using regedit. Improper usage may cause windows to behave imcorrectly. Also, I cannot be held resposible. Backup your registry first.
 
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Comments
Vltg3
2 years ago
Um, I think this is my issue (explorer goes to like 50% CPU usage after viewing an .avi file or if I click on one to check its filesize)
But when I right-click "Default" and choose delete, nothing happens. but if I do it again it errors "Unable to delete all specified values"... can this not be deleted?