Right Click Nightmare

on my computer at work about 1 out of every 3 times i use the right click on my mouse my computer will freeze for 20-30 seconds. As you can imagine this is very annoying. Any suggestions?

Running XP Pro by the way

Wireless mouse or standard? My wireless mouse does similar things when the batteries get low. If you've got a standard mouse, try monitoring CPU usage to see if for some reason the mouse is using too many resources during the "freeze-up". Maybe there's a newer mouse driver available.

Maybe there is keyboard shortcut you can use. Then i guess you could just highlight the object and use the shortcut and maybe it won't freeze.

standard mouse. I've used task manager to monitor the CPU usage and nothing is out of the ordinary when it happens. It even freezes using the keyboard shortcut so I don't think it is a driver issue.

Everywhere, or just in explorer?

If it's in Explorer, I'd check for problems with programs that attach to that menu. Things like WinZip, ICQ, and graphics programs usually like putting services there.

I'm not sure where these services attach to the menu though. I can't find anything specific in the registry.

If you have W2k, IE6 and McAffee Virus Scan 4.5.x this is a known but and it drove me nuts for a while. I found the answer via Google Groups search. I think the answer was a registry edit (foggy memory).

-Zeke

everywhere. It also stalls and can take up to 45 seconds when I try to open certain files (ie. html files, xls files, psd files)

Is the OS trying to access a CD-Rom or floppy in the send to menu? This can cause long pauses sometimes.

no. it freezes as soon as i touch the right click. it will take all that time just to bring up the menu.

How much RAM? Any processes using the processor intensively?

-Zeke

• Pentium 4, 1.60GHz
• 768 MB RAM
  

watching the task manager performace tab, The CPU usage stays normal varying from 1% - ~20%

Perhaps it's network related. I used to get seemingly random freezes that I tracked down to a mapped network drive that no longer existed.

-Dylan

I doubt it. The freezes are not random and are easy to reproduce, and they deal with files on my computer, not the network

Only 768MB of RAM? Didn't you know that XP needs 1GB to run a mouse?

j/k

In reply to:

---

and they deal with files on my computer, not the network

---

Heheh... that's what I thought too. That's why it took me so long to track down. Explorer seems to feel the need to verify network drives at unexpected times.

-Dylan

I did find a listing about a 30 second delay while W2k/XP searched for scheduled tasks on the remote machine (fixed by deleting a registry key), but your problem is local...hmmm.

-Zeke

I did find this in the microsoft.public.windowsxp.perform NG:
"I was able to fix this problem on my computer
by disabling "Client Server for Netware" under
network setup properties."

Also found this in "".basics
""UBFGUY" <ubfguy@bellsouth.net> wrote in message
news:vTqN7.12248$S93.512560@e3500-atl2.usenetserver.com...
> Whenever I right click and icon or file and expect the context menus,
> windows freezes and I have to reboot. I love XP except for this "glitch" I
> am having. Help would be most appreciated.

Does it truly lock the OS permanently, or does it just take a REALLY long
time to come up? If it's just ridiculously slow, one thing to try would be
to update your video card drivers. It may just be having a difficult time
processing some of the effects used (or perhaps even causing a lock in the
driver itself, if it's very poorly written). Another consideration is that
some program will install themselves into your right-click menu, and they
may be causing a delay or locking up entirely. If you have an application
that does this (such as zip programs or virus scanners) you may want to try
disabling this functionality or uninstalling the app to determine if it's
the culprit. Unfortunately, there's no really easy answer here - it's going
to take some tinkering to discover what code is causing the freeze, because
it's not Windows code that's doing it.

--
Chris Jackson
Microsoft MVP
Associate Expert - www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/expertzone"


-Zeke

bout 1 out of every 3 times i use the right click on my mouse my computer will freeze for 20-30 seconds.

This is probably a dumb question... but have you tried a different mouse? It's not impossible for a defective mouse to send very confusing signals to the computer...

tanstaafl.

I'll second checking what actions are listed on the menu - before I reinstalled to XP my machine used to do it a lot. I tend to keep the programs in the list to WinZip and a secure deletion program.

The main thing that is bugging me is on my computer at work - I have folder on a collegues computer as a mapped drive and when he switches it off and I do a "save as" it pretty much locks up for ~2 minutes. Opening "My Computer" and it shows it as disconnected...

Gareth

I will concur with others in this thread who have diagnosed it as a problem with one of your shell extensions.

There is likely more than one piece of software on your system which runs as a right-click context-dependent "shell extension". It is most likely one of these that is causing the freeze.

To Eliminate the *mouse* from the problem domain, use the context menu key next to (on the right of) the Right hand "windows" key on your keyboard to bring up the Right Click menu insteaqd of Right Click on the mouse.
If you keyboard has no contect menu or Windows keys on it, or you are unsure which key I mean - then use the Shift-F10 key sequence to bring up the Right Click (aka context) menu.

I expect as everyone else here says, that one or more of your "shell extensions" (i.e. Explorer add-ins) is causing the problem here.

The other point, is that you say "1 in 3" of your right clicks provokes to problem.
What is in common with the folders/files you are right clicking on when it does happen - that may provide a clue as to which shell extensions to start fingering.