Busy Program?

Question

Hi!  I am having the following problem.  Can you help?   This action cannot be completed because the other program is busy.  Choose 'switch to' to activate the busy program and correct the program.   When I click 'switch to' the start menu pop up, and the message I have typed above stays.  All my open internet windows become Non-Responsive.  I have to try to close them, which cause the end now message to come up.  It does this everytime I get on the interenet.  I have called my ISP and they say they are not having problems.  I have a cable connection.  All the lights on my box are on, showing that I am online.   My computer is a dell4540.   Also, I fell for the Winfixer trap.  Could that be a cause?

pcguru2006 · Answer

I have what appears to be the same problem on a customer PC. Her Dell displays the message ' This action cannot be completed because the other program is busy.  Choose 'switch to' to activate the busy program and correct the program.' when she attempts to open a JASC photo editing program. If I wait five minutes the JASC program will get past this. If I close it and reopen the same thing happens again. I uninstalled JASC and rebooted then reinstalled. Same problem. This also happened when I opened the Dell Image software trial version that came with the PC. I also uninstalled that. I noted that when you open My Computer it takes about five minutes (flashlight waving) to simply dislplay the C: D: ect.. drives. While this is 'trying' to view the drives...I can simply open Internet Explorer and type in 'C:\' inside the address window and immediately see the C: drive. This also works for the CDROM (D:) as well so the issue is not that the drives are lost. There may be a link between the two issues. Somebody out there must know what gives here?

Cmr1290 · Answer

Reformat the c:/ drive . but i think its a misalinous program downloaded intavertatily look at add/remove programs look at things you dont reqegnize and maybe un-install them because a program on your computer is useing it like a host

MarieWambo · Answer

Hey. Did you get your customer's problem solved? I am still experiencing the message on mine. It is to the point wher I just don't want to get online.

I have deleted all programs except the ones that involve Windows and what not.

pcguru2006 · Answer

First to MarieWambo:  No. I did not resolve my customers issue yet. I believe this to be a Windows issue, not a third party program as we all tend to blame. I think this answer lies in re-registering some of Windows key DLL files. It seems to me that the waving flashlight (long delay) opening 'My Computer' was once remedied by re-registering some DLL files belonging to XP. I found some info through Google that explained how to do that. It is relatively simple but there are quite a few DLL files. You would click on START then RUN and type in regsvr32.exe /u {name of the DLL you are registering} If that does not work you may need to use the full path of the DLL file's location enclosed within quotes. example: regsvr32.exe /u 'c:\windows\system32\wininet.dll'Notice the quotes only include the path not the regsvr32.exe /u part. This should not harm the PC to my knowledge as if the file is already registered nothing is done but if it has lost registration this will re-register it. Second 'reformatting and reinstalling' is never a fix to a problem. It is a very poor work-around. The reason we have forums is to share fixes and knowledge so we don't have to reformat in my humble opinion. pcguru2006

MarieWambo · Answer

I tried the suggestion and got the following message:   c:\windows\system32\wininet.dll was loaded, but the DllUnregisterServer entry point was not found.   This file can not be registered.   Did it work for you?  Thanks though! :)

pcguru2006 · Answer

Wow!! I am indeed sorry for the error. I gave you the UNREGISTER command not the register command. It should NOT include the '/u' It should read: regsvr32.exe 'c:\windows\system32\{the name of various DLL files..}' The idea is that various DLL files that make Windows run properly have become broken or unregistered. I have to do some research to get you a list of the ones to try registering. Business has been hopping so much lately I have not had much sleeping time and promise to get a list of files to re-register. When you get the list you would just use: regsvr32.exe 'c:\windows\system32\xyz.dll' where 'xyz' is the DLL name from the list. Notice that the c:\windows...(all the way to).dll is inside quote marks.

pcguru2006 · Answer

Marie, sorry for the huge delay in getting back to you. I was able to resolve the Jasco issue mentioned in the previous entries using this technique. It is a bit laborious but can do some great things short of a reinstall of XP and if this does not work for you I could give you details on how to "repair" Windows XP. That only takes 45 min or less and fixes 95% of these types of issues. My method is to re-register way too many files hoping to hit the one or two that might be causing the problem. First check to see if you can see the "SendTo" folder. It is usually located just above the Start Menu in Explorer (right-click on START and left-click on Explore and you should see a folder called Start Menu. If "SendTo" folder is NOT just above it THEN you should do this next step. If it is skip this step:
[***Left-click on Tools then Folder Options and View and tick (mark) "Show hidden files and folders" and remove the mark from "Hide extensions for know file types" then OK to close the "Folder options" window***]
Now while in Explore locate your profile (usually your name or owner etc..) and find the SendTo folder and highlight it on the left in Explore. In the right side window find a empty spot (no icon under the cursor) then right-click and choose New then Text Document and name the file Regit.txt Next double-click it to open the blank text window and simply type: regsvr32.exe %1 {your typing stops at %1 so you just typed "regsvr32.exe{space}%1" (minus the quotes)} (then click FILE and SAVE then close the text window) Now right-click on the Regit.txt file and choose Rename. Change the extension from TXT to BAT so it now reads Regit.BAT
Now you can right-click on DLL files and choose "Send To" then "Regit.BAT" A message will appear indicating the file was successfully registered. Don't worry if some do not as many files won't register this way or do not require registration. I then went to the c:\windows\sytem32 folder (one way is to go to START then RUN and type c:\windows\system32) or just open Explore and navigate to the system32 folder under windows (or winnt in some cases). Right click in the system32 window and choose "Arrange Icons By" then "Type". This will organize all the DLLs together. Now any suspect DLL file can be re-registered simply by right-clicking on the DLL's file name and choosing "Send To" and Regit.BAT. this cute little batch file saves a lot of typing and you can re-register 10 or 15 files in the time it would take to do one! I find that many of the DLLs that begin with W can be helpful and here are a few others to do: Shdocvw.dll Shell32.dll Oleaut32.dll Actxprxy.dll Mshtml.dll Urlmon.dll. To be honest I could not get help on this so I just experimented and after about ten minutes of spotting through the DLLs the problem was resolved! Also if you have your Windows CD you can try this to replace damaged files (DLLs and more) Go to START and RUN and type in sfc /scannow This will check for files that have been altered and replace them with original system files. This will not fix third-party files. Only uninstalling and reinstalling or repairing (if the option exists) can fix Jasc or other damaged third-party files.

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