Fix for COM Surrogate Has Stopped Working Error in Vista
Are you getting a Microsoft Windows Vista error that says “COM Surrogate has stopped working” whenever you browse folders containing video or media files and just can’t seem to find a solution to solving the problem?
If so then you’re in luck, becuase thanks to How To Geek and Alan McC, there’s a fix that could work for you. This problem is apparently caused because of codecs and other COM components installed by various softwares that aren’t fully Vista-compatible, like some versions of DivX or Nero.
There’s various possible solutions, but the one that seems to work the best is Alan McC’s one. That is turning off Data Execution Prevention on dllhost (the COM surrogate). This solution is detailed below.
- Right click on Computer, and choose Properties
- Click on Advanced System Settings, and then under Advanced, click Settings
- Select the “Data Execution Protection” tab, and then click Turn on DEP for all programs and services except those I select
- Click on the Add button, and then browse to C:\Windows\System32\dllhost.exe as shown
- Click Open, and then OK.
- Now you can browse video folders without problems!
Check out How To Geek for other solutions!
2 thoughts on “Fix for COM Surrogate Has Stopped Working Error in Vista”
John B November 20, 2007 at 5:23 pm
This fix works- HOWEVER- when you do this picture files will not open. I use VuePrint to open photo files and although you can see the thumbnails, the phots will not open if you turn on DEP. No one online seems to know this- but it is a fact.
Rachael January 11, 2009 at 11:33 am
I tried to disable dllhost.exe but I got an error saying “You can not set DEP attributes on 64-bit executables.” …any ideas?