Right Click on Folders Hangs Explorer 4

[quemquiseres]

OK, big problem here, I've tried everything and searched every possible forum but still no dice.
A few days ago I noticed that suddenly everytime i right click on a folder explorer hangs (I have to shut it down and restart it in task manager). Same behaviour if i just highlite a folder (left click) and then press delete on the keyboard. Now the strange thing is that i can right click files and delete them no problem. I've googled around and tried other people's solutions for this but still nothing.

http://www.hardwareanalysis.com/content/topic/7063/

http://ask.metafilter.com/mefi/4463

More info:
1) I can't system restore to a few weeks ago (i've tried 3 different restore points). I says system restore unable to complete after reboot and nothing changes.
2) I don't have Iomega burn or Eraser like other people that have had these symptoms
3) I've ran chkdsk with no probs, same with defrag and even system repair with the XP CD.
4) I've run RegSupreme and done a deep scrub of the registry still to no avail
5) I read somewhere that people were having similar probs because of Norton AV and probs with verisign certificates on Jan 8. I have NAV Pro 2003 and everything's up to date.
6) I've even updated to my latest Nvidia drivers (as some suggested) and still nothing.
Any help would be greatly appreciated as my system runs like a dream except for this recent bug (could it be some arcane registry key that's messing things up?). I'm out of ideas

 

[onclejean]

linney ( Feb 15, 2004 )said
<<This thread is taking on a life of its own and it is a full time job to check what has been mentioned or not. You can try these if you haven't already.>>

I have tried all those to no avail and finally I have worked out a fix which works well for me. It requires enough Windows skill knowhow to set up a desktop link to the Microsoft managemnt Console, the&quot;MMC&quot;. Here are the steps I took:

1) Remove the My computer Icon from the Desktop:
Control panel > Display > Desktop_tab > Customize Desktop and turn off the My Computer icon.
2) Make a short cut to the Microsoft management Console on the Desk Top:
- G0 > Start button > Run > Type mmc.exe, hit enter > When the new blank Console Root window appears in the MMC
- GO >File > ADD/Remove Snap-in > click add > select Disk Management from the available standalone snapins >Add.
- GO > This Computer > Close Add/Remove with OK
- Now high light the the disk managment entry in the the tree in the left pane. Then close the MMC and when asked.
[Using MMC for disk managemnt is fully explained in David A. Karp's book &quot;Windows XP Annoyances&quot; pub O'Reilly]

You need to save the changes: be sure to save to Current User Desktop. Place the MMC short cut icon where the My Computer icon would be top left on the desk top.
- Now create a short cut from explorer.exe on the desk top and place the icon just below the MMC icon.

From the Desktop
- When you want to view disks and open disk properties, click the MMC icon and use the displayed diskmanagement window.
- When you want to browse folders click the explorer icon and use the folder tree.
Hope this helps some others.

 

[Pathung]

I feel like such an ass. I have had this problem for over a year now and I hadn't been able to find resolution to it. Little did I know that disabling the PGP in my startup services would cause me so much headache. MEGA-KUDOS!! I DL'd PGP 8.0.3, clicked the install button, selected for it to uninstall my old program and reinstall on top of the software, and when I rebooted, no more hangs. FYI, I most commonly got this when I right clicked a folder in a window, or pressed the delete button. Occasionally it would happen when I right clicked the start menu or right clicked a folder on the desktop. My guess is, anytime that the PGP menu was supposed to pop up in your standard right click menu, it would hang waiting for the service to start up. But since we all disabled it, explorer just looked and looked and looked until 5 minutes later when it gave up. Thanks a ton people!

 

[AndreiTamas]

Same problem for me was solved by re-enabling the PGP service. You guys are great.

For those that do not have PGP, here's another possible cause of this problem as explained by Microsoft:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;819017

 

[onclejean]

This answer is probably definitive but depressing. A week ago I lost my system Silicon RAID because of a hardware failure in the RAID controller. I had to put in a new motherboard and as it is difficult to use disaster recovery backup to a RAID, this time time I decided to go the slow and sure route. After setting up the RAID I did a clean installusing F6 to load the latest Silicon Raid drivers. I then re-installed all my applications one by one and restored the data files from tape archives.
At the end of all that I found my right clicking problem had gone away.
The significant difference from the previous install, which was XP Pro slipstreamed with SP1, is that I used a new copy of Windows XP Pro including SP1 [given to me as an Xmas present but not used 'cos all seemed OK apart from the glitch discussed in this thread.
My Windows version now shows as Build 2600.xpsp2.030422-1633(Service Pack 1). All Windows Update patches have been installed from the Microsoft Update site.
So a clean install is probably a sure way to fix the problem.

 

[cottlr]

Thanks to every that assisted in this problem. I also had this problem. There is a common denominator: programs that are created as a drag and drop utility. In my case it was Aladin Drag and Drop expander. Once I uninstalled it, the problem went away. Thanks again.

 

[chienfat]

Not sure if anyone gonna reply to this thread anymore, but I'm having similar problem. Windows explorer doesn't seem to respond everytime i right-click on files with extension other than 'exe'. Also, when i tried to delete them or double-click to open, it'll take ages before it finally executes it. Also, same situation when i tried to right-click or access the files from start menu > my recent documents.

I've tried almost every method suggested here but to no avail. I'm not using PGP, tried the reg clean, context menu clean-up with uninstall / installing relevant programs, running / stopping services, online trojan scanners, spywares, etc... CPU usage was very low indeed when the lock-up happens.

I'm using XP pro SP1, P4 2.8 GHz, 1G RAM, 120 GB HD. Would really appreciate any help. Many thanks.

 

[chienfat]

an update.
i've tried with LAN removed and the problem just went off. so it is LAN related issue? perhaps windows explorer trying to access the network drives? i've since removed all the connected network drives, but the problem still there if i'm connected to LAN. is there any way i can check for windows explorer search sequence, eg. if it needs certain services to run??
thanks again.

 

[linney]

Any problems in Device Manager under Network Adapters?

Anything odd to report if you run MsInfo32 from Start Run?

Have you tried uninstalling and reinstalling drivers, or updating drivers for your Network Adapter?


To view the functions in a .dll file, use the Dependency Walker utility (Depends.exe), which is available with Windows XP Support Tools. To install Windows XP Support Tools, insert your Windows XP CD-ROM in the CD-ROM or DVD-ROM drive, click Start, click Run, type CD-ROM_or_DVD-ROM_Drive_Letter:\Support\Tools\Setup.exe in the Open box, and then press ENTER.


To look at Explorer.exe in depth try this freeware utility.

http://www.faberbox.com/fabertoys.asp?action=features

List of all running processes
List of all modules loaded by a process
For each process are displayed the command line, PID, memory, number of threads, priority, version, description, Parent process
For each module are displayed the date, size, ActiveX status, version, description AND MORE.

 

[chienfat]

hi linney, do u think it's possible to get/repost this thread:

Why it takes years to display right-click drop down menu?
Thread779-277803

my problem with right-clicking in windows explorer seems to have gone away, as the delay of context menu is now tolerable. i'm not sure how, and what's the exact problem. the last thing i did is to turn off the auto search for network folder... i think...

=> control panel > folder options > view > uncheck "automatically search for network folders and
printers".

 

[linney]

Why it takes years to display right-click drop down menu?
COPY OF Post779-277803



cwchan (Programmer) May 22, 2002
I am having problem with my system which is networked in my university. Whenever I right click on a file, it takes about 20 secondes to show up the drop-down menu. A great delay also occurs whenever I double-click on a file (so that it will be opened using appropriate software).Any idea on how to solve this problem?

I have TCP/IP with NetBIOS enabled. The system also refers to different DHCP, gateway, WINS, DNS servers.

Thanks and hope to hear from you.

jexster (Types) May 22, 2002
It sounds like you either have a problem with your memory i would guess that your virtual memory is low.

Mithrilhall (Programmer) May 22, 2002
I was having a similar problem with the right-click menu. A simple fix is to go <a href="

http://download.com.com/3000-2094-881470.html?tag=list";>here</a>.

This program cleans the registry and makes a backup of what was changed. Try is and let me know if this worked for you.


CDiercks (TechnicalUser) May 23, 2002
I am having the same problem. I have almost an identical setup. Only difference is I'm hooked to a lan through a router with cable modem, tcp/ip, netbios. I tried the reg clean utility, and it didn't work. Any other ideas, how do you change the virtual memory?

WidowMaker (IS/IT--Manageme) May 23, 2002
I have experienced the same problem at several PC's, and eventhough we have tried to locate the problem, the only valid solution is a format and reinstallation. A repair of the XP installation or a CleanUp of the registry (automatic/manual) have no impact..... Sorry - Personally I've spend over 14 hours finding the solution, and seeked help at Microsoft Premier Support with no result......


FilthPig (MIS) May 23, 2002
Check your send-to folder for programs that are missing or invalid. It can be located at c:\documents and settings\%username%\sendto. It's hidden, so make sure you're viewing hidden folders and files.
Marc Creviere

linney (TechnicalUser) May 23, 2002
The links below might give you some ideas if you have time to search through them. Some of the comments include -

"I was able to fix this problem on my computer
by disabling "Client Server for Netware" under
network setup properties."

http://www.annoyances.org/exec/show/article06-025

http://groups.google.com/groups?q="right+click"+slow+windows+xp&hl=en&lr=&start=0&sa=N

http://www.google.com/search?q="right+click"+slow+windows+xp&hl=en&lr=&start=20&sa=N

You might want to look at turning off unnecessary services that you have running in the background.

http://www.blkviper.com/WinXP/servicecfg.htm

HOW TO: Set Performance Options (Q308417)

http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q308/4/17.asp

What (if any) anti virus software are you running?


cwchan (Programmer) May 24, 2002
My problem solved after I downloaded RegVac from

http://www.superwin.com.

It's a registry cleaner.

What I did is I used the Novice mode to delete bad entries and after restarting Windows, the drop-down menu is back to normal.


CDiercks (TechnicalUser) May 25, 2002
THANK YOU!!!!! I tried RegVac, and all the other suggestions and it worked! I thought this problem couldn't be solved. I'm not really sure with solution was the right one, but I think it was RegVac considering it found 590 bad entries in my registry, and that was just with the novice mode! When I went through every option, I found at least another 380 bad entries. I really need to start over from scratch, but I just have too many programs and sensitive info on this computer to reformat and try to recover.

 

[chienfat]

Found this to be helpful as well.

Right-click is slow or weird behavior caused by context menu handlers:

http://www.mvps.org/sramesh2k/slowrightclick.htm