Context(right-click) menu Long loading times when Network connected

Question

The right-click context menu takes 10+ seconds to open on any file/folder. The delay does not change between repetitively right-clicking on the same file/folder. I also sometimes get explorer crashes.

There is only a delay when I am connected to a network (wired or wifi). It also doesn't matter if it is a internet connection.

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I have disabled all context menu/shell entries using CCleaner. Including the Norton's NavShExt.dll which is known to cause delays.

To make sure my HDD wasn't bad or failing:

• Ran sfc /scannow with no errors found.
• Ran the C:->Properties->Tools->Error Checking utility and it fixed some errors with no issue but decided to stop and do it from boot. I ran chkdsk C: /v /r /f at boot and it was able to fix everything("4 KB in bad sectors"): "No further action is required."
• Defragmented the C: drive where my OS and other data is located. I also have a D: partition and external networked NAS for data.

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I made several dumps from WinDbg to try to see why explorer was crashing by attaching to the explorer.exe and doing stuff until it crashed. .dump /m mydump.dmp

When capturing dumps with WinDbg, I get a constant stream of CLR exceptions(not sure if normal).

Answer 1

Check if you have any context menu items/programs that are in this list.

Use ShellExView to view all context menu entries that are enabled/active. The program is a bit old looking and hard to wrangle at first, but gives a complete picture of everything enabled. Disable all non-microsoft entries one by one until the problem goes away.

Once you have disabled/enabled any entries, you need to restart explorer.exe before the changes will be active. You can restart explorer.exe by opening the Task Manager(ctrl+alt+delete), selecting Windows Explorer from the Processes->App list and pressing Restart.

Note: CCleaner also has a context menu utility(Tools->Startup->Context Menu) but it doesn't list all entries that could affecting the load times.

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In order to manually debug explorer.exe, you can use WinDbg:

1. File->Attach to Process or F6
2. Sort By Executable
3. Scroll down and select explorer.exe. Make sure to select explorer.exe and not the session instance in the collapsible menu.
4. Press "OK" and wait for it to give you a console/text-input at the bottom of the command screen.
5. Type "g" and enter. Your explorer will freeze until you give it this command.
6. Look for any ModLoad entries that appear after the delay and the context menu appears. Any one of these could be the culprit.

If the explorer is crashing and you want to capture a dump file, start with steps #1-5 above then:

1. Do whatever action(s) that freezes explorer.exe. You will probably notice it doesn't crash like normal because WinDbg has stepped in and is waiting for the next command.
2. Make a dump file by running: .dump /m mydump.dmp
3. The dump file will be located wherever WinDbg was installed. You can also use a full file path to the desktop but it not always easy to have the path handy in the clip board to paste in.

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The solution in my case was to disable the Perforce P4EXP.P4EXPContextMenuExtension entry using ShellExView.

P4EXP.P4EXPContextMenuExtension
Location: C:\Windows\assembly\GAC_MSIL\P4EXP\2014.2.95.9073__null\P4EXP.dll
From: P4Merge
Company: Perforce

This delay was mentioned in the Perforce r14.2 notes but it probably regressed because I have version 2014.2 and still had the problem:

#975324 (Bug #75847)
P4EXP no longer builds the Perforce context menu on right click of an object in Windows Explorer. This could previously cause a substantial delay in display of the Windows Explorer context menu if Perforce environment variables were unset or incorrectly set or if the targeted server is offline.

Answer 2

I have already faced this problem and solved it.

I solved this problem using CCleaner as like below:

1. Open CCleaner.
2. Click on left tab to Tools.
3. Click on top tab to Context Menu.
4. Click on BthSendToContextMenuExt (File:C:\WINDOWS\System32\BSAppShEXT.dll)
5. Click on Disable button on right side.

If you fail to solve this problem by this way, you may follow this link http://windowsreport.com/file-explorer-slow-windows-10/