Sometimes, when you try to browse through your media files like your photos and videos, a pop-up screen may appear with the error message stating ‘COM Surrogate has Stopped Working.’ And what’s strange here is that this message will appear only when you browse your media files and any other type of files.
Component Object Model or COM Surrogate processes are important components in Windows. COM Surrogate process runs COM object in a separate process than the ones that requested it. For example, to create thumbnails for images and videos in a folder, Windows Explorer uses a COM object.
Furthermore, this object will not run in the explorer.exe process. Instead, it will run in a separate COM Surrogate process. It is done so that when the COM object crashes, only the COM Surrogate process gets destroyed instead of Explorer.
3 Methods to Fix COM Surrogate Has Stopped Working
It isn’t easy to give the exact reason why COM Surrogate is not responding. But in some cases, it can be due to corruption in the codec, which allows thumbnails to display, and in other cases, it can be due to corrupted display drivers. Here’s a tip, if you have installed an application and after its installation, you have started experiencing this issue, then it is good to roll back before you installed it and see if your issue is fixed. If not, then don’t worry!
In this article, you will learn some quick ways to resolve the issue of ‘COM Surrogate has stopped working.’
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Method #1: Update Codecs
We now know that one of the reasons we are facing this issue is that there can be corruption in code, allowing thumbnails to display. So, it is possible that this issue gets fixed on updating the codecs.
So, you need to basically update all the codecs of your Windows to their latest versions manually. You can do this by downloading and installing the codec pack based on yourWindows versions and checking if the error is fixed.
Method #2: Kaspersky Antivirus
If Kaspersky antivirus is installed in your computer, then it is a possibility that this antivirus is responsible for this issue with COM Surrogate. But don’t directly blame this antivirus on the first sight. Firstly, check whether this issue is really caused due to this antivirus.
To check that, disable the antivirus and see if the error message still appears. If it doesn’t appear, that means that this issue is due to this antivirus. And to fix it, you need to make sure that Kaspersky antivirus is up to date and your issue must be fixed after you update this software.
Method #3: Commands
If you have tried the above two methods but persists, you can try to run some commands to see if it fixes the problem. It should be noted that you need to run these commands in the Command Prompt. To do that, follow the given steps:
Step 1: Firstly, you should click on Start button.
Step 2: Secondly, type cmd in the search bar and then press the Enter key.
Step 3: Thirdly, right-click on the command prompt and choose ‘Run as Administrator’ to make sure that command prompt runs as an administrator.
Step 4: At last, type the following commands and press Enter key after each command:
regsvr32 vbscript.dll
regsvr32 jscript.dll
Few dll in windows will be registered with Windows and they will fix the ‘COM Surrogate has stopped working’ error.
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Conclusion
Many people face this issue in all versions of Windows (7, 8, 10). So, don’t panic if you’re also facing this issue. Go through the above article to find the best-suited solution for your problem.
They are the most effective methods to solve the issue of “COM Surrogate has stopped working”. If one method does not work, then you can always try the other method. Make sure you follow all the steps carefully to attain the desired result.
