Unicows.dll error on a Windows XP machine

[C***@adobeforums.com]

When I double click on a PSD file in Windows explorer on a Win XP Sp3 I get an error from Photoshop -

Adobe Dialog manager: "Unable to load required component Unicows.dll". Clicking Ok causes Photoshop (CS3) to hang and it has to be killed in Process Explorer.

The problem does not occur if the file is opened within Photoshop via the file open dialog.

Reading about Unicows.dll here (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Layer_for_Unicode) seem to suggests that on XP
Microsoft Layer for Unicode (or MSLU) should be natively supported
and I shouldn't need a Unicows.dll.

Anybody has any idea on what's going on ?

[Phos±four dots]

Maybe it's a re-naming problem?

Also from that Wikipedia page:

"A common problem encountered occurs when some updaters and uninstallers
rename or delete the file oledlg.dll preventing the operating system from
loading unicows.dll. This result in applications, such as OpenOffice.org
reporting that "Application cannot start because one of the required libraries
cannot be found." This occurs even if unicows.dll is installed in the
system."

[C***@adobeforums.com]

Yeah I looked at that. The file c:/WINDOWS/system32/oledlg.dll exists and has not been renamed or moved.

Still stumped by this error :-(

[M***@adobeforums.com]

Do any other applications open files with a double-click? If it was down to the DLLs, the error should be reproducible with other file types. If it's not, then probably simply deleting the PSD association in your Folder Options --> File Types and creating a new one from scratch would provide a workaround.

Mylenium

[L***@adobeforums.com]

Cowabunga!