explorer.exe slow on building the "right-click" menu

[Jens Andersen]

Hi all!

After installing XP-SP2 the other day, my explorer behaves strangely.
When right-clicking a file in any folder, there is a huge amount of
disk activity for 5-8 seconds before showing the file specific
"right-click" menu. Some times the delay can be up to 10 seconds and
finally - the menu doesn't show at all. When right-clicking on a
shortcut on the other hand, the menu pops up immediately as it used to
for files too prior to installing SP2...

This is the seconds machine this happens on, first one was a laptop I
used at work. There the problem was "solved" when the machine was
stolen (;-), meaning I never found a solution.

I am up2date when it comes to Windows Update, I'm running an up2date
Anti Virus. There is no network activity during the delays, only disk
activity. The disk activity is strange - a lot of activity for half a
second, then more or less silence for about half a second, repeating
until the menu shows. The Task Manager shows no apparent culprit. The
explorer.exe has a memory footprint of 28456Kb

Anybody out there having experienced the same phenomena, and maybe
having a cause and a cure?

All comments appreciated!

Jens Andersen, Langhus, Norway

 

[Rick \Nutcase\ Rogers]

Hi Jens,

It means that there is a context menu entry that is not loaded into resident
memory at boot. The first time you right click, it needs to be loaded, hence
the delay and disk activity. To discover which one it is, you need to
selectively remove them to isolate it. You will find the necessary steps
here:
http://windowsxp.mvps.org/context_folders.htm

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

Associate Expert - WindowsXP Expert Zone

Windows help - www.rickrogers.org