error message "Windows Explorer has stopped working"

[Jer]

For some reason whenever I right click something, e.g. to create a short
cut, to unzip a file, etc.I now get a message "Windows explorer has stopped
working" with the usual message about check for solution and restarting.

I had not installed any new program, Norton does not show any spyware,
virus. I checked the Microsoft knowledge base and discovered this is a very
commonly reported issue, but have been unable to find a solution., that
works.

Does anyone know of a solution?

Running Vista Home Premium with SP1 installed

 

[Malke]

For some reason whenever I right click something, e.g. to create a short
cut, to unzip a file, etc.I now get a message "Windows explorer has
stopped working" with the usual message about check for solution and
restarting.

I had not installed any new program, Norton does not show any spyware,
virus. I checked the Microsoft knowledge base and discovered this is a
very commonly reported issue, but have been unable to find a solution.,
that works.

Does anyone know of a solution?

Running Vista Home Premium with SP1 installed

Right-click issues are most commonly caused by third-party software that has
added an entry in the context menu. These entries are easily managed with
the free ShellExView software.

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

These articles were written for XP but the concept is the same for Vista:

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

Manage the context-menu entries for folders, drives and Namespace objects -
http://windowsxp.mvps.org/context_folders.htm

Malke

 

[Jer]

For some reason whenever I right click something, e.g. to create a short
cut, to unzip a file, etc.I now get a message "Windows explorer has
stopped working" with the usual message about check for solution and
restarting.

I had not installed any new program, Norton does not show any spyware,
virus. I checked the Microsoft knowledge base and discovered this is a
very commonly reported issue, but have been unable to find a solution.,
that works.

Does anyone know of a solution?

Running Vista Home Premium with SP1 installed

I should also mention I checked to see if I had digital vault installed and
it is not, and I have tried system restore for three diiiferent points; only
to get a message "an unspeified error" ocurred so the systme was not
restored.

 

[Malke]

I should also mention I checked to see if I had digital vault installed
and it is not, and I have tried system restore for three diiiferent
points; only to get a message "an unspeified error" ocurred so the systme
was not restored.

Go through the right-click troubleshooting I already suggested and report
back the results. If that doesn't help, do clean-boot troubleshooting to
see what is running in the background causing the issue.

How to troubleshoot a problem by performing a clean boot in Windows Vista -
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;929135

The free Autoruns program is very useful for managing your Startup -
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysinternals/default.mspx

Malke

 

[zachd [MSFT]]

Did this get fixed up? Malke's advice should have been good - if that
didn't sort you out, what are the fault details according to the Problem
Reports and Solutions control panel?