SliqM said:
VanguardLH ...
Only in folders with media files like AVI, mp3 etc.
The delay doesnt occur when i click directly on the media file, only when
i right click in the pane.
Process explorer show 100% cpu usage by windows explorer during the
delay.
The delay depends on how many media files there are in the folder.
A small AVI file has less delay then a big one...
You never said what view you use in the folder. Are you using the
Thumbnails view? If so, maybe Windows Explorer is rebuilding the thumbs
database on every revisit. The more media files there are in a folder,
the longer it takes to rebuild the thumbnails database (to cache them up
again).
First see if switching to List or Details view eliminates the delay
problem. Select a different folder, like C:\. Select either the List
or Details view. In Tools -> Folder Options -> View tab, click the
"Apply to all folders" button. This will use the current view in any
subsequent folders that you visit. Now go visit the problematic folder
to see if you still have a delay.
Configure Windows Explorer to show all files, including hidden ones.
Then delete the desktop.ini and thumbs.ini files in the folder. In
Windows Explorer, disable the "do not cache thumbnails" option. You
want to cache thumbnails if you have LOTS of media files in the folder;
otherwise, Windows Explorer is going to have to rebuild the thumbs.ini
file on every revisit to the folder. Of course, this is only effected
if you use a thumbnails view in the folder. Personally I don't care for
the thumbnails view. If used and caching is disabled, it takes a long
time to rebuild a thumbnails database that I won't have on the next
revisit. If thumbnails are cached, they may not be in sync with the
actual contents of the media files. Besides, my eye can scan through a
sorted listing of filenames that describe the media content faster than
having to view each thumbnail individually to see a picture to recognize
if the media file has something I want.
Is this a special folder (like under My Documents) or one you created
elsewhere? If you right-click on the folder and select Properties in
the context menu, is there a Customize tab?
Bill might be correct that you installed a program that adds a context
menu item but it is screwed up. If this is a recent problem, what have
you installed recently? Trying to figure out which program added a
registry entry to add an extension to Windows Explorer (which is based
on the type of object selected in Windows Explorer) is a bit harry. I
end up using Nirsoft's Shell Extension Viewer and Shell Menu Viewer
(they're editors, too). I have to feel my way around to see what might
be included in the context menu when I'm clicking in or on a type of
object. That's why it's sometimes easier just to figure out what you
recently installed when a problem showed up recently that causes a lag
or crash in building the context menu from the registry entries.
Using shellexview and making changes requires a reboot to effect the
changes. It can be a laborious task trying to find out which extension
is causing the problem; however, shellexview might show you something
that you don't expect, like an extension for a program that you thought
you uninstalled (i.e., the uninstall was incomplete or corrupted and
left behind registry setting but there's no handler program for it
anymore). Some of the registry keys involved are:
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\x\ShellEx\ContextMenuHandlers\
where x = * (single asterisk), Drive, Folder, or Directory.
There are some filetypes and file classes that have a shellex subkey,
too, to define what handler gets used for that file; however, you said
you weren't right-clicking on a file. There may be more than this (I'm
not a guru at this stuff). Since you're right-clicking inside a folder,
my guess is you need to look at the shell extensions defined for
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Folder\ShellEx\ContextMenuHandlers. Look at the
ContextMenuHandlers subkey. However, it isn't just these extensions
that can cause a problem.
You haven't used any utilities that let you add custom entries to the
context menu, have you?
