“Preview Handler Surrogate Host has stopped working” – Windows 10/11

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This error was happening when the preview pane in Windows Explorer was on and a .MSG file was selected. There is no 64-bit handler for .MSG messages in Windows, only 32-bit. So a 64-bit set of handler files needs to be added.

We found this fix at https://www.brandsict.nl/msgpreviewer_en.php:

You need .NET 4.5 or higher. This is native to newer versions of Windows or can be activated via Add/Remove features.

  1. Download and run this file: MSgPreviewer64_installer. This will create the folder C:\MSGPreviewer64 and place the files there.
  2. Open an elevated command window and navigate to
    C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework64\v4.0.30319
  3. Execute these commands:
    regasm /tlb C:\MSGPreviewer64\SharpShell.dll
    regasm /codebase C:\MSGPreviewer64\msgpreview.dll