Program May Raise a Sharing Violation When a File Is Opened from Windows Explorer

When a program tries to open a file on a remote computer, you may receive an error message that is similar to the following:

This problem may occur if Windows Explorer has the file open because it is extracting a thumbnail for that file. This is likely to occur when you double-click the file to open it in Windows Explorer. This problem is more likely to occur when remote storage is in use on the server.

Service pack information

To resolve this problem, obtain the latest service pack for Microsoft Windows XP. For additional information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

Hotfix information

A supported hotfix is available from Microsoft. However, this hotfix is intended to correct only the problem that is described in this article. Apply this hotfix only to systems that are experiencing this specific problem. This hotfix might receive additional testing. Therefore, if you are not severely affected by this problem, we recommend that you wait for the next software update that contains this hotfix.

If the hotfix is available for download, there is a "Hotfix download available" section at the top of this Knowledge Base article. If this section does not appear, contact Microsoft Customer Service and Support to obtain the hotfix.

Note If additional issues occur or if any troubleshooting is required, you might have to create a separate service request. The usual support costs will apply to additional support questions and issues that do not qualify for this specific hotfix. For a complete list of Microsoft Customer Service and Support telephone numbers or to create a separate service request, visit the following Microsoft Web site: Note The "Hotfix download available" form displays the languages for which the hotfix is available. If you do not see your language, it is because a hotfix is not available for that language.

The English version of this fix has the file attributes (or later) that are listed in the following table. The dates and times for these files are listed in coordinated universal time (UTC). When you view the file information, it is converted to local time. To find the difference between UTC and local time, use the Time Zone tab in the Date and Time tool in Control Panel. To install the fix, you must have Windows XP Service Pack 1a (SP1a) installed.

For additional information about how to obtain the latest Windows XP service pack, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

To work around this problem, do one of the following:

• Change to Classic View. To do this in Windows Explorer, follow these steps:
  1. On the Tools menu in Windows Explorer, click Folder Options.
  2. On the General tab, click Use Windows classic folders, and then click OK.
  -or-
• Change to Thumbnail View. To do this in Windows Explorer, click Thumbnails on the View menu.

Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem in the Microsoft products that are listed in the "Applies to" section. This problem was first corrected in Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 2.