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Something weird is going on with my context menus in my Windows 10 installation. They are showing up blank.

In the first day after installing it has happened 2 or 3 times. But today, it's happening almost all the time.

The first time this happened was right after an update from Windows 8.1, so I don't see any reason to think this is caused by third-party software.

https://i.stack.imgur.com/6VmrF.jpg

This is how it looks like for a folder or a file:

https://i.stack.imgur.com/KHzV0.jpg

Context menu in all other programs works fine, for example in SublimeText3, Skype, etc.

Does anyone have a solution to this issue?

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  • 1
    Seems to be an issue with low resources, normally after copying a large amount of files (what I was doing too when the issue started). Looks like a fix is coming soon: answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_10-start/…
    – gbhall
    Sep 12, 2015 at 16:48
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    Windows 10 has some warts to deal with yet. I've seen many issues with Windows 10 in many parts of the operating system. I would reinstall the product or simply downgrade to Windows 8.1. While I love the interface much more than Windows 8.1 there are many instances where drivers were not compatible, bugs not fixed yet and software not integrating right with Windows 10 yet.
    – Dale
    Oct 21, 2015 at 5:31
  • @Dale I don't know why but this is happening but every time I reinstall Windows 10 on this certain old laptop I see this issue.
    – Insane
    Oct 21, 2015 at 5:35
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    Try booting up your laptop in safe mode. @gbhall may have a point. If your laptop has low memory it may not be giving you enough resources for those menus to be generated. Safe mode might give you a bit more resources. Here's how to boot in safe mode for Windows 10. tomshardware.com/faq/id-2569556/safe-mode-windows.html
    – Dale
    Oct 21, 2015 at 5:43
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    I have this issue on i7-4770 and 8Gb RAM laptop, so, this is not about amount of resources, in my case. Had to downgrade to 8.1.
    – Mihail
    Oct 22, 2015 at 6:35

3 Answers 3

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+50

This kind of thing can happen when there's a compatibility issue between the OS and a third-party plugin that creates context menu items. It isn't necessarily the third-party developer's fault - sometimes the operating system corrupts the installation of a plugin that normally works fine.

If you happen to know which programs have created context menu items, you can try reinstalling those programs to see if it will help. This StackOverflow Question also has some registry keys that would list things that have been added to the context menu.

Ultimately, it could also be that the operating system is corrupted itself. In that case, you don't have much choice but reinstalling it.

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    Using autoruns you could disable the context menu items and reboot to see which one is causing it. Through all the systems ms made 3rd party context items have caused problems at one time or another, autoruns (once learned) make it simple to discover which item might be a problem.
    – Psycogeek
    Oct 27, 2015 at 1:10
  • You can use CCleaner to quickly see and disable content menu items. Tools -> Startup -> Context Menu
    – Matthew Lock
    Jun 15, 2018 at 7:50
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Some system files may be corrupt due to third party software, as you say. You can run a system file check scan.

For that open a Console as an administrator and run this:

sfc /scannow

After the scan you should receive a message telling you that some files have been repaired and the system needs to be restarted.

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    For the first time it happened on clean OS.
    – Mihail
    Oct 26, 2015 at 13:19
0

Deleting mcafee services ( exes) solved it out :

notive here :

enter image description here

After killing :

enter image description here

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