Cannot Right Click on files or folders

[Guest]

I cannot right click on any icon on my desktop or any file
in My Computer. If I do, it gives me the eternal
hourglass. If I do it on the desktop, I have to log out or
reboot. If I do it in "my computer" or another folder, I
must 3 finger salute that folder. I think this was caused
by a Windows update. I have uninstalled updates back to
before this happened, but no success. Please
help..............

 

[NRC]

A couple of months ago I could not right click on anything, after checking
everything else I could think of, it turned out that the mouse was the
problem. Could be that yours is just worn out, so see if you can borrow one
and try it temporarily before you change any software.

 

[Guest]

I can right click on the desktop and inside AutoCad and other programs, just not on files or folders

 

[Guest]

When I click my computer on the desk top I also now get the hourglass for several minutes before my drives and folders display. Have you found a solution to this problem? Also, now my explorer is slower. I do not know what causes this.

 

[Alex Nichol]

I cannot right click on any icon on my desktop or any file
in My Computer. If I do, it gives me the eternal
hourglass. If I do it on the desktop, I have to log out or
reboot. If I do it in "my computer" or another folder, I
must 3 finger salute that folder

One possibility.

If it is just Shortcuts:
Start - Run - regedit and open to
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\lnkfile and highlight. Use File - export to export
that key so you could put it back if this does not work. Then in it
open further
shellex\ContextMenuHandlers\TargetContext
Highlight that and delete


If it applies to any file type at all, do the same at
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\*

It may be difficult to locate the specific handler (it won't be Target
context) that is giving trouble: remove them one by one until the
trouble clear, then import that exported file back, and remove just the
troublesome one. It is likely to be one added by a third party program,
so try things that look of that sort first

 

[Brian Smither]

I cannot right click on any icon on my desktop or any file

in My Computer. If I do, it gives me the eternal
hourglass.

Although this sounds extreme, the problem may be due to Norton Antivirus.
Their Verisign certificate expired and so now Windows wants to blip out
to the Internet and check on the status of the certificate.

If this is what is happening on your system, then do this as a temp fix:
Control Panel, Internet Options, Advance, Security Section, uncheck
"Check for publisher's..."

No, it wasn't a Windows Update.

Hope this fixes it for you.