# [SOLVED] Locked MKV files, Multiple Instances of Explorer, PC Lag



## pushkin69 (Feb 16, 2008)

Anyone encountered issues with locked MKV files? Some of the movies on my computer appear locked by 3-7 instances of explorer and really slow down performance. I downloaded *Unlocker * (which is how I noticed this) however that's just a workaround for the time being.

1) I read numerous posts saying that the issue is that this particular MKV is *corrupt/damaged*, even though it plays fine. I've tried to repair this file with *Meteorite*, and *MKVToolnix*, but it does not solve the problem and in some cases even gets worse. So I've verified that this is *NOT the issue*.

2) Other posts say the issue is with explorer's *thumbnail creation*, and it takes too long with files that are 10GB and more. I don't really care about the thumbnails, but I don't want to disable thumbnails altogether, in cases of JPG files and such. Is there a way to disable thumbnail creation for particular file type, or just movies files?

3) And third set of posts say the issue is with explorer trying to figure out the length/duration of the file and where it ends... which is causing the lag similarly to #2 above. In this case they mention there's a DivX fix out there, which I've downloaded and installed but it *does NOT fix the issue* either.

Anyone experiencing the same thing? Know how to resolve it? I repeat again the issue here is not with corrupt MKV file, and not with my hardware, as I can play any other HD MKV file just fine. It's only the selected few that always cause this issue.

Hardware Specs
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CPU: Intel Core2Duo E4500
RAM: 4GB DDR2
GPU: Radeon HD 4xxx Series


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## pushkin69 (Feb 16, 2008)

*Re: Locked MKV files, Multiple Instances of Explorer, PC Lag*

There's another possible cause of this found here:
MKV files are locked by Windows Explorer - Microsoft Answers
Not sure if I want to mess around with my registry, but I figured maybe it would give whoever is reading this more info to help me. Please let me know what you think.

"The source of this problem is *DivXPropertyHandler.dll* attempting to determine the length of .mkv files. Windows 7 decides to automatically add the length column in detail view when there is a large amount of video files. Given a .mkv file DivXPropertyHandler.dll doesn't like (for whatever reason), the *explorer handle* on that .mkv *will hang* when DivXPropertyHandler.dll is *unable to determine the length* of that .mkv. And thus the file is locked."


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## pushkin69 (Feb 16, 2008)

*Re: Locked MKV files, Multiple Instances of Explorer, PC Lag*

Wow seems like no one here can be of any help. After some more googling, it appears that DivXPropertyHandler.dll was in fact the culprit. I uninstalled DivX from my PC and the issue disappeared. Media Player Classic Home Cinema edition already comes with a built-in plugin to play most video files, including MKV, and the files play just fine without needing DivX at all. The other option was to install K-Lite Codec Pack Standard (after uninstalling DivX), which would enable video playback for virtually all video types and would not involve a divx installation. However, I follow a general rule of thumb - the less you clutter your computer with software the better. So I'd say just use Media Player Classic Home Cinema, or VLC and avoid any bundle codec installations.


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