This likely works for most OS's. I have seen numerous threads about the infamous "Windows Explorer Folders Pane being greyed out or not working properly. In most instances, the users are Win98 with IE 5 derivatives. Most of the users were fixed up with IE 6.
My problem was a little different in that it existed on a Windows 2000 Server with Terminal Services and SP3....Did I mention it already has IE 6?
Going through the threads, I have seen the reg tweak that follows for Win98 (Bottom of post). Users were still having problems if they had newer browsers because the DLL was different (That was my case too). I looked in the registry of my server and compared it to another server that has the same setup but does not suffer from the symptoms. Here's what I found
Problematic Server Reg Key
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
microsoft.public.windowsxp.general: Re: Explorer "Edit File Type ::
File Format: PDF/Adobe Acrobat - View as HTMLWhen I go to Windows Explorer "Folder Options/Edit File Type/File. >> Folder/ Advanced" dialog, the Edit and Remove buttons are grayed out. But
http://www.tech-archive.net/pdf/Archive/WinXP/microsoft.public.windowsxp.general/2005-02/27072.pdfHOME |
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOTCLSID{EFA24E64-B078-11d0-89E4-00C04FC9E26E}InProcServer32]
@=hex(2):25,00,53,00,79,00,73,00,74,00,65,00,6d,00 ,52,00,6f,00,6f,00,74,00,25,
00,5c,00,53,00,79,00,73,00,74,00,65,00,6d,00,33,00 ,32,00,5c,00,73,00,68,00,
64,00,6f,00,63,00,76,00,77,00,2e,00,64,00,6c,00,6c ,00,00,00
"ThreadingModel"="Apartment"
"InProcServer32"=hex(7):76,00,28,00,59,00,51,00,24,00,4b,00,24,00, 29,00,5d,00,
38,00,62,00,71,00,78,00,5a,00,39,00,38,00,33,00,43 ,00,76,00,74,00,46,00,37,
00,32,00,38,00,35,00,3e,00,5f,00,64,00,6a,00,4c,00 ,4c,00,2d,00,35,00,4b,00,
4c,00,41,00,30,00,2e,00,35,00,56,00,50,00,58,00,36 ,00,28,00,26,00,47,00,00,
00,00,00
Sounds greek, doesn't it? On my good servers, the InProcServer32 Hex String didn't exist. I exported the registry key and deleted the Hex value. I logged into the server with a Terminal Services session and voila, Windows Explorer works again. The server console didn't work for me until I rebooted the machine, so if you are working on a Desktop or server console, you'll likely have to do the same.
Pre-SP1 fix for 98
REGEDIT4
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOTCLSID{EFA24E64-B078-11d0-89E4-00C04FC9E26E}]
@="Explorer Band"
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOTCLSID{EFA24E64-B078-11d0-89E4-00C04FC9E26E}InProcServer32]
@="C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\BROWSEUI.DLL"
"ThreadingModel"="Apartment"
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOTCLSID{EFA24E64-B078-11d0-89E4-00C04FC9E26E}Implemented Categories]
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOTCLSID{EFA24E64-B078-11d0-89E4-00C04FC9E26E}Implemented Categories{00021493-0000-0000-C000-000000000046}]
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