Long delay on right-hand mouse click: XP SP3

Topic

New Reply

Just recently my XP SP3 system has developed a seroius delay when using the right-hand mouse click for Context Menu File Properties. The deley can be as much as 30 seconds ! After extensive investigation I found that the problem relates to Network, as the problem does not occur when starting up in Safe Mode without Network. I have searched the Registry for invalid IP Addresses etc and I have also reduced the number of File Associations, as the list was becoming extensive, both to no avail. All the usual Virus, Malware, Defrag, and Clean functions have been carried out. Stangely though if I connect to my Free VPN service the problem is reduced to about 10 seconds ! Any ideas would be appreciated, thanks.

Reply | Quote

Replies

ShellExView may help to track down and eliminate which shell extension is causing the pause: 3rd mouse button 15 sec delay in Explorer.exe

Bruce

Reply | Quote

Hi,
Although I have not found the source of the problem, even after extensive file type deletions in the Registry, I did discover that if I removed “Open With” from HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT*shellexContextMenuHandlers the problem dissapeared, albeit removing the “Open With” option from the right-hand click menu, as you wouild expect.

To resolve my current position, I then had a “Eureka moment” …. why not utilise the “Send To” option and install all my “Open With” items there. This I have done, and at the end of the day the user functionality is identical to “Open With”.

However, I would still like to hear if anyone has solved the original problem …. in the meantime thanks to BruceR.

Reply | Quote

From here…

Use Registry Editor to examine the file association key for unknown file types: HKEY_CLASSES_ROOTUnknownshellopenascommand
The “default” value for this key should read: C:%windir%rundll32.exe shell32.dll,OpenAs_RunDLL %1
If necessary, modify the value to match the value shown here.

Reply | Quote

Thanks DocWatson …. my Registry checks out OK as you advised.

Reply | Quote

Sorry, meant to address your original problem and replied to the wrong post in the thread.

What mouse software, if any, are you using ??

Reply | Quote

Standared Microsoft Wireless Mouse Driver

Reply | Quote

OK, I believe I may have an answer for this. Check out this thread. I checked out the RegScanner utility recommended there and it seems to be a better option than the Windows Registry Editor. Here’s a how to article on it that might help you choose between the two. BTW – it’s FREE.

Reply | Quote

Safe Mode with no networking doesn’t just eliminate networking from the equation, it eliminates a whole lot of other stuff as well. (For example, a lot of malware can’t run in Safe Mode.) It strips Windows down to the bare minimum. Therefore, this problem may have nothing to do with networking functionality.

The fact that the problem went away when you went into Safe Mode tells me that it is possible to resolve this.

Try going into Safe Mode with Networking. If the problem does not exist there, then you have eliminated networking as a potential cause.

Also, try going into VGA mode. If the problem does not exist in that mode, then it could be a video-related problem, because VGA mode strips the video down to the bare minimum, eliminating most if not all video-related problems.

If none of that fixes it, then start Windows in regular mode, load Task Manager, and go to the Performance tab. Then click on the Resource Monitor button. Then watch Task Manager while you right-click. You’ll probably get a good idea where the problem is occurring.

Group "L" (Linux Mint)
with Windows 10 running in a remote session on my file server

Reply | Quote

I know it’s been several weeks since the last post, but I don’t see any indication that this problem was solved. So, here is my contribution:
I’ve encountered this symptom many times over the past two years in my consulting practice. I’ve found that, more often than not, one of the apps in the context (right-click) menu is faulty or corrupt. The most common offender, I’ve found, is your zipping utility. The easy way to find out is simply to uninstall whatever you use (WinZip, FilZip, 7Zip, etc.) — if the delays go away, you’ve found the cause. Just install a newer version or the same type of utility from another vendor. Hope this helps!

Reply | Quote

I know it’s been several weeks since the last post, but I don’t see any indication that this problem was solved. So, here is my contribution:
I’ve encountered this symptom many times over the past two years in my consulting practice. I’ve found that, more often than not, one of the apps in the context (right-click) menu is faulty or corrupt. The most common offender, I’ve found, is your zipping utility. The easy way to find out is simply to uninstall whatever you use (WinZip, FilZip, 7Zip, etc.) — if the delays go away, you’ve found the cause. Just install a newer version or the same type of utility from another vendor. Hope this helps!

My experience with zipping utilities is that they load an active component when you log into Windows. If you stop that component from loading, and then just use the zip utility as needed, it will probably do the trick.

Group "L" (Linux Mint)
with Windows 10 running in a remote session on my file server

Reply | Quote

I’m curious why a zipping utility would interfere with the response of the right click menu.

I mean, it should be that the zip options would only be added to the right click menu based on the file extension that windows recognizes. Nothing about the zip utility would be invoked until the menu option is selected, right?

Anyways, the problem I’m having is not a delay in my right click menu, but rather sometimes (not always) the right click action is not recognized at all until I right click an extra time or two. And that didn’t start happening until after I installed Service pack 3 in XP.

Reply | Quote

I’ve been dealing with this right click issue since I did a Win Update on 2 machines in December. Particularly right clicking any file on any one of our three NAS drives. It did not affect right click selections on any of the client hard drives. The only thing consistent with the delay phenomena was the response delay (for any menu function) varied linearly with the size of the file.

I followed the same line of reasoning as “Redss” posted, as well as other issues. I could devote an entire page of troubleshooting data but the culprit was TugZip I had installed just prior to the WU. Shame on me for getting old. After reading this thread, all of which is very good information, I removed and reinstalled the same (latest) version of TugZip without enabling the shell function and not selecting all file extensions. Network file access is back to normal. And TugZip is a very good program IMO. It opens .ISO files easily.

Thanks again “RSMComputer” for the post.

Reply | Quote