Have you ever encountered this situation that when you browse folders related to video or media files or try printing files on your Windows computer, you get the error message – COM Surrogate has stopped working.
Don’t worry, because many Windows users got stuck in this trouble. It’s frustrating. However, there is no need to be panic. In this post, we are going to show you some solutions to deal with the error on how to fix this error COM Surrogate has stopped working.
Error Message: COM Surrogate Has Stopped Working
We all know that the dllhost.exe file is an important Windows system file, also known as COM Surrogate, which is running in the background. COM (Component Object Model) enables the developer to create COM objects by using various programming languages.
However, if the dllhost.exe file gets lost or in trouble, the dllhost.exe application error will arise, preventing you from launching any apps. In general, the following reasons may cause COM Surrogate error:
- Uninstalled Windows updates
- Corrupted or deleted dllhost.exe files
- Invalid registry entries
5 Fixes to Error COM Surrogate Has Stopped Working
As error message COM Surrogate has stopped working bothers Windows users too much, we are going to focus on how to solve the issue according to different possible causes.
Solution 1: Uninstall Drivers Installed Recently
Please follow these steps:
1. Right-click Start and choose Device Manager from the menu.
2. Find the drivers installed recently. Right-click it (them) and choose the Uninstall device.
3. Activate the Uninstall button to confirm.
Repeat the same steps several times for multiple drivers.
Solution 2: Rollback Display Driver
Open Device Manager > expand Display adapters > choose Properties from the right-click > shift to Driver tab > click Roll Back Driver button. Then, choose a reason why you need to roll back the driver. Finally, click Yes to confirm the operations.
Solution 3: Run an Antivirus Scan
If you don’t have an antivirus program, you may get one to install it on your Windows PC. Launch it to scan your computer to kill the found viruses. Then restart the computer to see if the error COM Surrogate has stopped working has been solved or not.
Method 4: Hard Disk Error Checking
Similarly, you can run a hard disk error checking to deal with the issue. CMD is helpful at the moment. Use chkdsk command to check the specified drive. To scan for the bad sectors and repair errors, you just type chkdsk d: /r (d stands for the drive letter of the drive you want to check).
Solution 5: Close COM Surrogate
Launch Task Manager by pressing Ctrl + Shift + Esc > right click on COM Surrogate > choose End task
If you can’t find COM Surrogate, then shift to Details tab > right click dllhost.exe > choose End task.
Solution 6: Update Codecs
It’s reported that updating the Codecs is also useful for fixing the error COM Surrogate has stopped working. As the issue is related to viewing and printing photos/videos, updating codec seems to be a good option to help you work out the COM Surrogate error.
To achieve it, you can download the Codec Installation Package from official Microsoft’s website. Then, follow the instructions to install or update the codecs.
This post concludes some possible causes and relevant solutions to solve the error COM Surrogate has stopped working. All these methods have been tested by MiniTool team, just read them carefully to find the most suitable one for you. We hope one of these solutions will save you from the COM Surrogate error in Windows.
