Module Directory not opening properly

[Bossmitch]

In Windows, when I open my FantasyGrounds II data directory and then open the modules directory, the directory opens and I see the directories and files which are there, but then everything basically freezes for about 20 seconds, and the opened window just closes. Then all appears normal. I have not even noticed a problems opening any modules in Fantasy grounds; everything seems to work fine, but I have never seen this happen before on any directory ever! But I do not believe I could download a module for instance and copy it into the directory to open. I am using Windows 10 from a recent upgrade, and directories were all created in Windows 7. Not sure if this is a cause or not.

Has anyone ever seen this before, or have a fix?
Thanks for any insight.

[damned]

hola Bossmitch and welcome.

ive seen it. it has something to do with windows seeing .mod files as movie files by default.
possibly windows is trying to extract the movie length from the file to display it in the standard folder list display for movies and then refreshing when it fails
or it could be something else all together.

i havent seen a fix.

[Galdrin]

If you go to Control Panel -> All Control Panel Items -> Default Programs -> Set Associations you can see what program .mod files is associated with. If the extension is marked as video with VLC or some other video program associated with it you could try and change that. I'd change it to something like winrar/winzip/notepad and then try again to see if the freezing stops. Let me know if you need screendumps to guide you through control panel.

[Moon Wizard]

Actually, I have the same issue on my machine (also Windows 10), but I haven't found a way to resolve the issue yet. I already changed the default association for .mod files from WMP to Notepad++ with no luck.

I'm guessing from what I've read that it is related to the thumbnail generation built into Windows Explorer, but I'm not positive. There is mention that it is actually a problem with the MPEG-2 codec attempting to decode the .mod files and causing a crash when it fails. However, this is as far as I've gotten.

Regards,
JPG

[Galdrin]

I'm not sure I'm 100% correct here but thumbnail generation should not be executed unless the file signature indicates a mpeg2 file regardless of the file extension. File signature is the first few bytes of each file that tells the operating system what kind of file it is and the file extension is more for user friendliness. For mpeg2 file the signature is 00 00 01 BA (or ....º), the .mod files has a file signature of 50 4B 03 04 (or PK..) as they are pkzip compressed files.

How about antivirus and race conditions? Some antivirus programs extracts and scans all compressed files that they see.

[Moon Wizard]

It's completely specific to .mod files, and I've seen reports that it is happening to people with non-standard .mkv files as well with the exact same symptoms.

It's definitely a crash condition in Windows Explorer, because there is a system event generated that says that Windows Explorer has crashed.

I'm not 100% that it is thumbnail generation either, but it is definitely something within or called by Windows Explorer having trouble dealing with a directory of .mod files.

Regards,
JPG

[Galdrin]

Ok, thanks for that info. Things like these are intriguing to me so I just can't help myself going on a quest to understand the error :)

[Trenloe]

If you change the "View" setting to be "List" for the directory do you still get the issue? In theory this shouldn't be generating thumbnails nor trying to get length details for the .mod files.

[Galdrin]

As I don't have the issue myself I cant test things so if anyone could test and report on the following:

Right click on the modules directory and choose properties. Go to the tab Customize. Change "Optimize this folder for:" from videos to General items.

Not sure it solves anything but I've read that some with this problem om media files of the typ .mkv and .mod was helped by this workaround.

[Moon Wizard]

Nice work Galdrin. That actually prevents the crash from happening.

Regards,
JPG

[damned]

As I don't have the issue myself I cant test things so if anyone could test and report on the following:

Right click on the modules directory and choose properties. Go to the tab Customize. Change "Optimize this folder for:" from videos to General items.

Not sure it solves anything but I've read that some with this problem om media files of the typ .mkv and .mod was helped by this workaround.

Thank you Galdrin.
I even went thru my registry deleting all .mod associations and it didnt fix.
Customising fixed it for me too.

[Galdrin]

Nice! Glad it helped.

[Bossmitch]

Thanks for all your responses. The folder was set for videos. I changed as you suggested and problem is fixed.
Thankyou!

[irish_carbomb]

This issue just resurfaced for me, and the above fixes did not work. BUTTTTT... apparently Microsoft just released an update for windows 10 that fixes the issue. Cumulative Update for Windows 10 Version 1607 for x64-based Systems (KB4015438)