dllhost exe com surrogate error – FIX

        “dllhost exe COM surrogate has stopped working” an irritating pop-up appears while watching some interesting photos or Videos. Here I had shown two ways to Fix the COM surrogate error. no need to go with any change of codecs ( Nero & DivX ). 

Process explanation: 

In a NUTSHELL, “dllhost exe COM Surrogate” is DllHost.exe process created by any other process, which wants to execute some code from any DLL (code library), but it doesn’t want to execute the code in its own space since it does not trust the code in terms of stability. So it creates a “surrogate” to execute the code. If that DLL code dies during execution, the only DllHost.exe surrogate process dies (giving us this “COM Surrogate has stopped working” error) and the initial process still alive. If this killing code were executed in the initial process directly, then the initial process dies instead of a surrogate.

Though actually, we have no need to care what it is and what all this means and how things work. We want our photos and Videos being shown. The error says “COM Surrogate has stopped working”in windows 7 , 8 and looks like shown below. I have given two ways to solve the COM surrogate error in Windows 7 below.

Com surrogate has sopped working


1. Retrieve the whole Folder


            This Method is to solve only the COM surrogate error in Windows 7 Photo viewer

  • Retrieve the whole folder “C:Program FilesWindows Photo Viewer” from another healthy computer.
  • Open your “C:Program Files”.
  • Rename “Windows Photo Viewer” to any other name.
  •  Copy healthy “Windows Photo Viewer” folder from step 1  into “C:Program Files”, so there will be “C:Program FilesWindows Photo Viewer” folder with usual files.
  • Open your image, check that everything works.
  • Restart your PC.
  • Delete the old folder. Or keep it.

2. Adding ” dllhost ” file to fix the COM surrogate error:

If the first method doesn’t work, try adding dllhost file. This may resolve the problem. follow the steps as shown below.

  • Press  Winkey Pause Break 
  • Click advanced system settings on the left.      
                  COM surrogate error in Windows 7 Photo viewer.
  • Click the Settings at the Advances Tab:
COM surrogate error in Windows 7 Photo viewer.
 
  • Select ” Turn on DEP for all programs
 
COM surrogate error in Windows 7 Photo viewer.
 
 
  • Select add and Choose dllhost file in the System32 dir.
COM surrogate error in Windows 7 Photo viewer.

If you have finished successfully with the ” com surrogate has stopped working windows 7 ” then it’s our pleasure to serve you And if you got messed up with something, feel free to scribble it into the comment box…!

 Other Ways to Solve ” dllhost exe Com Surrogate Error ” Chosen from the comments: 

   1. FOUND A WORKING SOLUTION TO INTERNET EXPLORER 11’s dllhost exe COM Surrogate Error by will

Problem: My Windows 7 x86 (32bit) Virtual Instance on Parallels Mac was having issues with launching Internet Explorer 11 after a forced upgrade from Internet Explorer 10. And since one of the websites needed for work rely on and are only compatible with Internet Explorer, this was driving me nuts. Every time I would launch Internet Explorer, I would get bombarded with a series of COM Surrogate errors that would never stop until I had ended the tasked via Task Manager and/or restarted the virtual machine.

Diagnosis: After attempting all the currently available solutions on the internet..: Updating Windows 7/8 Codecs, Adding Data Execution Prevention (DEP) entries for both COM Surrogate and Windows Host Process for my x86 Windows 7, Running an Antivirus scan, attempting to find a way to downgrade Internet Explorer 11 (nearly impossible), and even removing my Parallels Display Adapter from the Device Manager..

HERE IS THE SOLUTION that worked for me:
1. Hit Windows + R (Run) and launch “inetcpl.cpl” (Internet Explorer Settings)
2. Go to the Advanced Tab, and Click “Reset…”
3. Check “Delete Personal Settings” and click Reset. Tada!

2. Other Way to solve dllhost exe COM Surrogate Error by Vipin

1. Open Internet Explorer.
2. Click Internet Options.
3. Click the Advanced tab.
4. Press restore advanced settings and Reset button with Delete Personal Settings checked.
5. Apply and restart your PC.

If unable to open internet options then restart the system in safe mode. 
I hope this will be helpful.

Experts Advice to Fix dllhost exe COM Surrogate Error: 

The Back Room Tech – Fix COM Surrogate has Stopped Working in Windows 7
http://thebackroomtech.com/2010/08/27/fix-com-surrogate-has-stopped-working-in-windows-7/Help Desk Geek – Fix COM Surrogate has stopped working in Windows 7
http://helpdeskgeek.com/help-desk/fix-com-surrogate-has-stopped-working-in-windows-7/ 
If you have any easy solution for dllhost exe Com Surrogate, kindly let us know in comments. 🙂
  • Post author:
  • Reading time:10 mins read
  • Post last modified:January 2, 2019
  • Post category:Internet

Henry Richardson

Henry loves to Blog, share his Internet knowledge, helping computer newbies, and make money online.

This Post Has 29 Comments

  1. Tahir Zia

    One of method worked for me, i would like to share that it might help someone else.
    Using OS: Windows 8.1 pro 64bit
    The Com surrogates stopped working error was faced everytime i was going to pictures folder from “Start Menu” and clicking on “Pictures”. The Pictures shortcut link was opening the pictures folder as “Apps -> Pictures” with a long random characters in address bar. Instead when i clicked my normal pictures shortcut, it simply takes me to C:Usersusernamepictures and the com surrogates problem was didn’t occurred that way.
    So I simply changed the “pictures” target location to “C:Usersusernamepictures” and problem got solved.

  2. fighter@X

    are there alternate key for window key + Pause Break ,because COM Surrogate doesnt let me open it

  3. busana kasih

    can i download the Windows Photo Viewer folder instead of coping it?

  4. pankaj

    for 64-bit systems

    C:WindowsSysWOW64dllhost.exe

  5. Unknown

    Hi,

    This worked for me.

    1. Open Internet Explorer.

    2. Click Internet options.

    3. Click Advanced tab.

    4. Press restore advanced settings and Reset button with Delete Personal Settings checked.

    5. Apply and restart your PC.

    If unable to open internet options then restart system in safe mode.

    I hope this will be helpfull.

    Thanks

    Vipin

  6. Anonymous

    well done Shahid that seems to be the answer for the 64 bit version Thanks for your post

  7. John Greatorex

    On this computer, slide show works if you select a single photo from a file. (‘Com Surrogate’) error only appears if you select a complete file

  8. John Greatorex

    Try clicking on a single photo from a file, then run slide show. Slide show should then work. (The ‘Com surrogate’ error only appears on my computer whenever a complete file is selected.)

  9. pankaj thani

    you can not set DEP attributes on 64 bit executable , this problem occurs in my pc what should i do..?

  10. pankaj thani

    you cannot set DEP attributes on 64 bit executables , this problem occurs…what should i do..

    1. Thomas androws

      C:WindowsSysWOW64dllhost.exe is the correct location for windows 7 64bit system – credits : Shahid

    2. Michael Arduino

      still does not work properly for me after adding this file location and rebooting windows.

  11. Anonymous

    FOUND A WORKING SOLUTION TO INTERNET EXPLORER 11’s COM Surrogate Error

    Problem: My Windows 7 x86 (32bit) Virtual Instance on Parallels Mac was having issues with launching Internet Explorer 11 after a forced upgrade from Internet Explorer 10. And since one of the websites needed for work rely on and are only compatible with Internet Explorer, this was driving me nuts. Every time I would launch Internet Explorer, I would get bombarded with a series of COM Surrogate errors that would never stop until I had ended the tasked via Task Manager and/or restarted the virtual machine.

    Diagnosis: After attempting all the currently available solutions on the internet..: Updating Windows 7/8 Codecs, Adding Data Execution Prevention (DEP) entries for both COM Surrogate and Windows Host Process for my x86 Windows 7, Running an Antivirus scan, attempting to find a way to downgrade Internet Explorer 11 (nearly impossible), and even removing my Parallels Display Adapter form the Device Manager..

    HERE IS THE SOLUTION that worked for me:
    1. Hit Windows + R (Run) and launch “inetcpl.cpl” (Internet Explorer Settings)
    2. Go to the Advanced Tab, and Click “Reset…”
    3. Check “Delete Personal Settings” and click Reset. Tada!

    Enjoy 🙂
    –Will.

    1. Thomas androws

      Thanks, and your comment is added to the post too.. 🙂

  12. Shahid

    C:WindowsSysWOW64dllhost.exe is the correct location for windows 7 64bit system

    1. Anonymous

      Mine is 64-bit, so this worked for me. Thanks!

    2. Anonymous

      working fine but i get warning that my computer may b damaged by virus by this

  13. Thomas androws

    Try retrieving the whole folder from your neighbour!

  14. Jenni Klemp

    I am so grateful for the in a nutshell explanations. I was excited that this would fix my problem. Tried and turns out I have 64 bit as well. 🙁 Option 1 is not an option for me. So you are saying there is no fix for 64 bit?

    1. Thomas androws

      C:WindowsSysWOW64dllhost.exe is the correct location for windows 7 64bit system – credits : Shahid

  15. Anonymous

    com surrogate has started working 🙂

  16. donpatie

    Thanks fixed mine..no more errors

  17. Thomas androws

    System DEP configuration settings apply only for 32-bit applications and processes when running on 32-bit or 64-bit versions of Windows. On 64-bit versions of Windows, if hardware-enforced DEP is available it is always applied to 64-bit processes and kernel memory spaces and there are no system configuration settings to disable it.

    Have you tried the first step?

  18. Anonymous

    I get an error “You can not set DEP attributes on 64 bit executables” when I try to add dllhost.exe to the exception.

Comments are closed.