I was experiencing very nasty problem for the past months: when I right click a file on the notebook, it took hell lot of a time to display the context menu. Sometimes it took even more than 30 seconds or so. The most nasty thing (apart from this problem) was the fact that I can’t do anything, while I’m in “waiting state” for the context menu – if you click somewhere else, the menu will hide immediately after shown and you will have to right-click and wait again.

Today I made a huge step to the resolution of this problem. Everything started with this forum posting, about which I red in Windows XP Expert Zone Community WebLog. The resolution, which was suggested there, was simple:

> try this…
>
> Go into any folder’s menu
> Click Tools->Folder options
> Go to the “View” tab
> …And uncheck “Automaticaly search for network folders and printers”
> Click OK…

I tried these steps and Ohhh, Miracle – the right click reaction seems much faster now. It will take some time until I confirm my observations, but so far it seems much, much faster.

I’ve still got some delays (for example – in the PDF files), but these are acceptable (and unavoidable) for now.

Another place to look for probable resolution of this problem is the following registry key:

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Drive\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers

This is the registry place, where most of the Context menu handlers are located. If you start removing the handlers one by one, you will most probably see which one of these guys are causing the long delay. And you may switch off the context menu handler (if you can afford).

It’s not bad idea at all to backup your registry before proceeding. If you do so, you will be able to restore the things, if you mess up something! Also, System Restore Point is not a bad idea before proceeding.

I will continue digging in this direction and I will most probably share my findings, if there are any…

Днес успях да преодолея много досаден проблем, който имам от година. Проблемът накратко: при натискане на десния бутон в/у папка или файл, на компютъра му отнемаше от 10 до 30 секунди да ми покаже контекстното меню. Много досадно и дразнещо!

Проблемът се оправи, когато приложих следните инструкции:

> От менюто на Explorer в коя да е папка:
> Избери Tools->Folder options
> Отиди на “View”
> Махни отбелязаното на “Automaticaly search for network folders and printers”
> Натисни ОК…

Това направи нещата доста по-бързи. Все още се наблюдава забавяне при някои файлове, но това засега е поносимо (и неизбежно)…