explorer freezing

[Yang]

Sometimes, when doing certain operations like deleting files or right-
clicking, explorer.exe locks up (no window redraws, etc.). Sometimes it
comes out of it (after about 30 seconds to a minute); other times, it seems
to be stuck for good, in which case I need to kill it with taskmgr. This is
extremely annoying (esp. since some of my tray icons disappear on killing
explorer), and I usually don't bother waiting for the 30 seconds to kill
explorer. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

 

[Elmo]

Sometimes, when doing certain operations like deleting files or right-
clicking, explorer.exe locks up (no window redraws, etc.). Sometimes it
comes out of it (after about 30 seconds to a minute); other times, it seems
to be stuck for good, in which case I need to kill it with taskmgr. This is
extremely annoying (esp. since some of my tray icons disappear on killing
explorer), and I usually don't bother waiting for the 30 seconds to kill
explorer. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

You could try this:

Right-click is slow or weird behavior caused by context menu handlers.
http://windowsxp.mvps.org/slowrightclick.htm

 

[Yang]

I've written my own context menu handlers and I am conscious of the
software I choose to install which add these. I don't think it's due to
context menu handlers.