Desktop right click menus do not appear until you move the mouse o

[Guest]

Hi all

We have a new installation of Windows XP SP2 on a PC and are experiencing
strange behaviour when using the right-click pop-up menus on the desktop -
such as right-click on the system-tray clock or right-click on the taskbar.

On right-clicking, the outline of the pop-up menu appears (just a box
outline) with no menu items being shown. However, if you move the mouse over
where the menu items should be displayed, they appear one by one as the
pointer passes over them.

I have tried resetting the desktop to XP default, turned off all of the
performance options (System properties - Advanced - Performance options).
Also, we are using the latest ATI display driver for the graphics card.

Does anyone have any idea how this can be fixed ?

Thanks

Edward

 

[Malke]

Hi all

We have a new installation of Windows XP SP2 on a PC and are
experiencing strange behaviour when using the right-click pop-up menus
on the desktop - such as right-click on the system-tray clock or
right-click on the taskbar.

On right-clicking, the outline of the pop-up menu appears (just a box
outline) with no menu items being shown. However, if you move the
mouse over where the menu items should be displayed, they appear one
by one as the pointer passes over them.

I have tried resetting the desktop to XP default, turned off all of
the performance options (System properties - Advanced - Performance
options). Also, we are using the latest ATI display driver for the
graphics card.

When you say "new installation", does that mean it has no third-party
software installed at all? If you *do* have some other software and
this issue isn't happening "right out of the box", see if an entry in
the context menu has perhaps messed it up. The easiest way to do this
is with ShellExView, which you can get here:

http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/shexview.html

Malke

 

[Guest]

Hi Malke

Thanks for the suggestion. This PC does have third-party applications
installed, but I did not see this missing-pop-up-menu-item problem when it
was handed over to the user. The user claims that no software has been
installed - but the user is a novice and may not be aware of what he has
actually done.

I will try out the application you mentioned. I have had a look at the
author's website - what exactly do you suggest that I do with this tool ? -
is the idea to go through the enabled items and turn them off one-by-one
until the problem goes away, or is there some other method I should apply
when using this tool ?

Thanks again for the help so far.

Regards

Edward

 

[Malke]

Hi Malke

Thanks for the suggestion. This PC does have third-party applications
installed, but I did not see this missing-pop-up-menu-item problem
when it
was handed over to the user. The user claims that no software has
been installed - but the user is a novice and may not be aware of what
he has actually done.

I will try out the application you mentioned. I have had a look at
the
author's website - what exactly do you suggest that I do with this
tool ? - is the idea to go through the enabled items and turn them
off one-by-one until the problem goes away, or is there some other
method I should apply when using this tool ?

No, you've got the troubleshooting steps exactly right. I would start by
disabling all the non-MS stuff and then enabling one thing at a time,
testing after each change. Since this is a novice's computer, I'd also
do the normal check for malware. Let me know if you need any help with
that.

Malke