Reliable crash of OpenDialog on Windows XP SP2

[crlab]

Hello-

I have found the following bug with Delphi versions 4, 6 and 7 (at
least) running on Windows XP2 (service pack 2). In general, I found
that Delphi OpenDialog boxes occasionally crash when the user looks
around the desktop. Below I illustrate a way to see this behavior 100%
of the time. I have seen identical performance on three machines (2
are 32-bit, one has XP 64-bit).

To elicit the bug:
1.) Show the TOpendialog (opendialog1.execute)
2.) Select an item on the desktop.
3.) Wait for a tooltip to appear.
4.) Press 'Cancel'
5.) Show the TOpendialog (opendialog1.execute)
6.) Select an item on the desktop.
7.) Wait for a tooltip to appear.
-- at this point the program crashes.

By the way, notepad.exe shows the same behavior on Windows XP SP2 32-
bit - so this is not a Delphi specific bug, but I would love to find a
work-around.

Further, making the program an exception for Window's DEP does not
resolve the problem (to turn DEP on or off for a program, go to Start/
Settings/ControlPanl/System, advanced tab, 'settings' button on the
performance panel, then select the 'Data Execution Prevention' tab.

-chris

-----------------------
unit Unit1;

interface

uses
Windows, Messages, SysUtils, Variants, Classes, Graphics, Controls,
Forms,
Dialogs, StdCtrls;

type
TForm1 = class(TForm)
Button1: TButton;
OpenDialog1: TOpenDialog;
procedure Button1Click(Sender: TObject);
private
{ Private declarations }
public
{ Public declarations }
end;

var
Form1: TForm1;

implementation

{$R *.dfm}

procedure TForm1.Button1Click(Sender: TObject);
begin
opendialog1.execute;
end;

end.

[crlab]

I have found that EVERY Delphi application will exhibit this bug with
a OpenDialog and CloseDialog (at least Delphi 4-6). It appears that
this bug was introduced with WindowsXP SP2, and I am not sure if it
exists in Vista. However, here is a simple fix for this problem... You
only need to add this modification to the first form of your
application:

uses ActiveX;

initialization
OleInitialize(nil);

finalization
OleUninitialize
end.