Windows 10 Retrieving Extended File Properties (1 Viewer)

Mohsin Malik

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As my Windows 10 PC is up to date, I've done the obvious thing and run GetFileAttributes on Shell32.dll so you can compare the results with yours.

See attached file

NOTE: My PC has the update you listed: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/4022715

HTH

Thanks @Colin, I have attached Shell32.dll attributes log of Working VS Not Working. I have compared the one with recent Windows Update (i-e not working PC) with your log and it almost looks same except few additional attributes.
 

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  • Shell32Attirbutes_Working_PC.txt
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  • Shell32Attirbutes_Not_Working_PC.txt
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isladogs

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I see your Shell32.dll file version is older on the PC where you're having problems.

Apart from that & the language difference, the files are very similar

As far as I can see, both grab the same attributes but note that the attribute numbers differ.
This comes back to the original point made by @ashleedawg in an earlier post

I'm unable to advise on how you can solve your problem
 

The_Doc_Man

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On review of the KB article, nothing jumps out at me. I would say that patch is not necessarily the place to look. Did you have an Office patch at/near the same time? I would think that is the more likely candidate for causing this.

Ridders brings up a very valid point. The file version for the working copy is shown as 6.3.9600.18460, whereas the not-working copy is 6.2.14393.1358 - which means, in more common speech, that version 6.3 works and 6.2 doesn't work for you. If for some reason you have an old version of Shell32 on the non-working system, you might very well have found your issue.

Unfortunately, it is not enough to just copy Shell32.DLL from the working machine to the non-working machine because the Windows registry gets involved here. In fact, it would be a VERY bad idea to attempt a simple copy. The odds are high that for an application extension (which is visible as one of the extended attributes), you would end up with a dangling registry link AND no current link to the updated file. You would need a registry fixer for the dangling link and I don't know what elements are needed to build a new registry link manually for the newer file. Let's just say that "ugly" doesn't come close to covering how bad that would be.

You might try to manually re-run an update to see if something catches the old version of Shell32.DLL and updates it. Otherwise, I am unsure where to go from here.
 

Chinchilla

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FYI.
I double checked the Microsoft Office 365 builds for the 2 computers and one was automatically updating - the other not. The computer that was getting the attributes correctly had an older build so I went and updated it and now it now longer works. So it appears in my case it is something to do with the lastest Office build.
 

The_Doc_Man

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Thanks, Chinchilla - that confirms one of my suspicions.
 

Mohsin Malik

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Hello,

I confirm that I have my Windows/Office updated to latest build on non-working PC but Shell32.dll shows older version, Is there a way to update Shell32.dll to latest version?

Can anyone confirm if Windows Update latest release was on the latest build https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4022723?

Thank you
Mohsin
 

The_Doc_Man

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If Windows Updater doesn't update any more, then Shell32.DLL for some reason seems to be the right version for that system. After some research, it is clear to me that SHELL32.DLL is a Windows file and not an Office file.

I cannot confirm which version of any MS patch is the latest, greatest. Only the Win Updater can do that.

The only things to come to mind are whether the non-working PC was loaded in an odd way originally and whether it is a Certified Genuine Windows installation, because the only things that would make an update skip a machine would be (a) some strange configuration caused by a quirky manual load or (b) that the copy of Windows doesn't have a correct license.

There are some web hits on issues with SHELL32.DLL that include hints (and commercial "fixer" tools) to help you replace that file. For instance,

http://www.techsupportforum.com/forums/f10/solved-replace-shell32-dll-without-reboot-250013.html

Just do a web search for FIX SHELL32.DLL and browse a few of the sites. Have your security turned on because I've some of these "free fix-it" sites to be excellent sources for ad-ware.
 

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